Where the Flowers Lay
by CaffNTea
Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch. Official art by me for the story :)
1. On the Move

**Where the Flowers Lay**

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (assumed), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter One: On the Move

Patch wasn't a very… _notorious_ island in Vale. It was one of those random countryside places that people thought only farmers had interests in, which wasn't wrong either. Many families moved out to Patch for its peace and gorgeous landscape, with the addition of Signal Academy, which is mostly famous for its speciality in the agricultural and (surprisingly) martial arts departments.

Aside from all the farm animals and fields, Yang and Ruby had made the place their home. Patch was more open to people; a collectivist culture where everyone knew each other and aided in everyday life. The two were used to it, especially since their parents both worked their individual jobs. Taiyang, their father, was a karate instructor at Signal Academy but also ran Judo lessons in the front yard of their home. Yang and Ruby would always tag along to these judo classes out of pure interest, to their mother's dismay who insisted that violence was in their blood due to Taiyang.

Summer was both sisters' mother, however, biologically she was only Ruby's mother. Both siblings understood as much but neither let it bother them since it hardly affected the way Summer treated them. The mother, who Ruby almost looked identical to, ran a flower shop called Summer Roses, that was within the centre of the streets. Sometimes on weekends, Yang would carry Ruby on her back, a fear of losing her sister in the streets, all the way to the flower shop to help their mother run it since she was the only staff member.

Honestly, life in Patch was worth it to the Xiao Long-Rose family. Sometimes the family of four, with the addition of their doggy companion, Zwei, would go on day trips to the coast to bathe in the sun and swim in the ocean. As noted before, Patch wasn't really notorious for anything, which was perfect for the family. There were no interruptions during their trips to the coast nor were there any vandalism or antisocial behaviour on the island. It was as expected from a countryside.

Yang and Ruby had been taught about the phrase "Survival of the Fittest" at a young age. Taiyang insisted on giving them knowledge of living and so, when it came to the inevitable, the two faced their worst fear of this phrase. It was hardly six in the afternoon when Yang had to be taken to the back of the flower shop to be spoken to by Taiyang. She could remember the shakiness in his voice, the trembling of his fingers, and the emptiness in his eyes as he voiced the words: "Your mother passed away".

It was heart shattering. Summer had always been a role model to Yang and if she, the daughter of Taiyang's previous wife, was devastated, Ruby would have had it worse. Ruby wasn't given the news until after she came back from her errand of buying fertilisers from a farmer. Yang didn't have to read Ruby's mind to know how miserable she was. In fact, neither sisters had to speak as Yang cradled her little sister in her arms, both trying to overcome the grief that Summer laid upon them.

Summer's death was natural and unavoidable, and it left a big whole in their family. A gap that was difficult to fill, no matter what the sisters tried to shove in. Eventually, they left it alone, deciding that it was better to leave it be and accept the space. Yang and Ruby grew up with their single father, who tried his best to teach them about flowers, something that they both wanted to pursue for Summer. Not having enough knowledge, it led to them meeting their Uncle Qrow, whom the girls adored. Since he was old friends with the parents, he was able to help the girls and even go out and buy some books on flowers for them.

That all led up to this point. This barrier that could either be the beginning or end of the Xiao Long-Rose sisters.

"Honey, do you have your passports?" Taiyang spoke as he peeked out from the side of a box that he was holding in both hands.

Yang, in her leather jacket and shades, smiled at her father, taking out two passports from her pocket. "Got it."

Taiyang sighed in relief as he dropped the box on a cart before walking over to Yang, giving her a big hug. Now that Yang was officially an adult, her father was less obliged to worry about her – not that it stopped him. Still, Yang found it endearing that her father worried so much about them, especially since they were moving far away.

"…Are you sure you want us to do this?" Yang asked, her smile wavering a bit.

Taiyang, a few months back, had the idea of branching out their flower shop to Beacon, where Qrow lived. He had convinced his daughters to move there to make the name bigger, screaming that it would make Summer proud. Ruby, who was an easily convinced young adult, jumped at the gun on it whilst Yang was more hesitant. She didn't like leaving behind her home, where their mother raised them and now lay. However, a conversation with Qrow led to her agreeing.

"Of course, dear." Taiyang replied. "I want the best for you. Both of you. The city is more capable of giving you a better life than Patch."

Yang bit her lip and nodded before going back to the car to find her 2 years younger sister sleeping soundlessly in the back. A flick on the forehead and it got the dark-haired girl up.

"Wah?" Ruby uttered out.

"We're here, dork." Yang said, pulling Ruby out of the backseat.

Ruby hummed in reply before jumping into their father's arms for one last hug. They waved their goodbyes to Taiyang and Patch. Yang could tell that Ruby had a small regret for leaving, she did too, but Taiyang was right. Beacon would better their future and, well, free them from the chains they'd subconsciously put on themselves.

"Come on, Rubes. We've got a flight to catch."

 **Θ**

Upon arriving at Beacon, the girls were picked up by their Uncle Qrow. He wasn't hard to spot, especially since he was tall in the crowd of much shorter people. For the first week living in Beacon, the two stayed on Qrow's couch until they rented an apartment near the shopping centre that they planned on opening their shop at. Yang had already bought the store before they moved to Beacon, so the siblings immediately jumped on designing and decorating the flower shop. Occasionally, when Qrow wasn't busy handling politics, he would aid in the heavy lifting. It took about 2 weeks for Summer Roses to be finished and Yang and Ruby couldn't be happier.

Before opening, Ruby had put up fliers everywhere to alert the citizens of vacant jobs at Summer Roses and after a whole day of interviewing the candidates, they were left with Ren and Jaune. It wasn't hard to choose those two since they were the only candidates of the four that _didn't_ have criminal records.

"Ruby?" Someone squeaked from the front of the store. The black-haired girl with red tips was just finished sorting through the pots and seeds in the storage room.

"What's up, Jaune?" Ruby raised her voice, clapping off the dry dirt on her hands as she headed towards the counter.

The smooth brown counter top had a blonde boy slouching over it, mumbling something to himself. Ruby sighed sympathetically. Compared to Ren, who had background experience and knowledge of being a florist, Jaune was a newbie who knew nothing about the sort.

"I messed it up…" Jaune replied sombrely, his blue eyes reflecting on the wax of the counter.

Ruby raised a brow at this confession. She eliminated all the possibilities that the statement could lead to and let out a quiet laugh. He had probably meant the organisation of a flower section and Ruby couldn't blame him. Yang's instructions were never really detailed. It took even _her_ a few months to understand the words of Yang Xiao Long and they were sisters!

"It's okay, Jaune. I'll handle it. Can you fill the cash register with change, please?" Ruby said, giving the poor boy a smile to reassure him.

Jaune jumped up and nodded, his tail wagging right behind him as he quickly turned towards the cash register—wait, tail? Ruby shook her head, laughing at the delusion that was created by herself. She gazed at the floral clock on the wall that read 3:47. It was almost 4 in the afternoon so if she sorted out the flowers, they could close the shop and then she could go get a cup of coffee from across the street.

Not to neither Ruby or Jaune's surprise, the flowers were perfectly positioned the way that Yang had wanted – hopefully. After closing, Ruby bid Jaune goodbye, reminding him not to be late the next time he came to work.

As promised of herself, Ruby set off to the coffee shop called _Coco Latte_ , which, for a Friday was not busy. Upon entering, Ruby was faced with a…strange sight. There were two baristas at the counter, one was taking an order from a customer, and the other was…dancing with a broom? She'll admit, the song that went with the choreography matched but this scene was a little humorous.

"Come on, Velv! Dance with me~" The dancing barista said, winking and dipping the broom.

The person she was directing it at was a girl with long brown hair sitting at a table near the counter. This Velvet person did not look like she was from Beacon, or even Vale. It was only after she had spoken that Ruby was able to confirm it.

"Coco, please get back to work. Blake looks like she's about to blow." Velvet said, her accent foreign in Vale.

Ruby would have heard more but her stomach began to rumble of hunger, so she decided on getting a cookie along with her tea.

"Hi, welcome to Coco Latte. What will you be having today?" The barista spoke monotonously.

Ruby smiled at the barista – her name tag said Blake – and gave the girl her order. She paid for her drink and received a receipt for her order. Whilst waiting for the drink to be made, Ruby decided to create small talk with the barista. It was something that she normally did in Patch since the village was less populated. Obviously, she was still culturally dislocated as this wasn't really a normal thing in Vale.

"Hey…Blake? Your friend is very funny." Ruby said, hoping it came off friendly.

The black-haired girl looked up from the coffee machine, taking a second to comprehend her words before smiling and shaking her head.

"Coco? We're not friends." Blake said, glaring at her co-worker, who was now tipping her beret to Velvet.

Apparently, this Coco person heard Blake and gave her the puppy eyes and huffed in their direction.

"That's so rude, Blake! I'm not paying you to lie about our relationship~" Coco replied, winking at the girl.

Blake shook her head as Ruby tried to supress a laugh. The girl with yellow eyes then looked at Ruby, the two finally making eye contact.

"Are you new here?" The barista asked, like it was a calculated guess.

Ruby nodded enthusiastically in response. "Yeah. Just moved here last week. Set up a shop just across the road."

Blake raised a brow and hummed, getting back to work. "Oh, so you're the owner of Summer Roses? The shop looks really nice."

Ruby grinned at the compliment and the amount of attention Blake had paid to the store. "Oh, I'm a co-owner with my sister, Yang. Thank you very much! We're opening in 4 days and I'm nervous as to how it'll all turn out."

"Don't worry about it. Here in Vale, if you know what you're doing and talking about, your shop will be a success. That's how this place is surprisingly still open." Blake said.

"Hey! I heard that you b—"

"Coco, no foul language!" Ruby heard the voices of Coco and Velvet.

She smiled and when she received her drink, Ruby gave Blake a tip, who reflected the expression before showing it off to Coco. The red head assumed that Coco was the owner of the establishment from the name, so she gave the barista with the broom a wave.

 **Θ**

If there was one thing that Yang had to mention was annoying about living in the city, teenage hooligans would be at the top of her list. Now, Yang was only 21 and hell, she _looked_ good, so she was an easy target for these overconfident delinquents to perv on. It frustrated her that threats did no harm to them and only fuelled their intentions.

"I swear…I'm going to burn them alive!" Yang vehemently scowled under her breath.

The girls were two days away from officially opening their shop. They only had to wait for the stock of fertilisers and gardening equipment, which was going to be delivered tomorrow. Since everything else was set, Yang had been able to set a rota for the four of them. The shop was only going to be set up for 4 days a week at the beginning so that they could get a feel for the atmosphere. She'd already called Jaune and Ren about what days and times they had to come in for in advance.

Now, Yang was on her way to the park for a morning jog. Ruby was still passed out back at the apartment and since she spent all night reading, the older sister didn't want to wake her up. Usually on jogs through the park, Yang would plop in her ear buds and listen to the calming sound of metal but today, she decided to take in nature.

The birds were chirping; a different sound to the usual rooster noises that Yang was more familiar of. Still, she carried on, embracing the smell of freshly trimmed grass. It was around 6AM so there were hardly any people around except for someone jogging in front of her. The girl had ear buds in and seemed to be taking the same route. Yang wasn't going to disturb her until she caught sight of a note slipping out of the girl's pocket. If Yang was someone like her Uncle Qrow, she would have taken the money and acted like she never saw it, however her father and step-mother taught her better.

"Excuse me." Yang said, tapping the girl with white hair on her shoulder.

The girl stopped and turned her head, taking out one ear bud with a raised brow, obviously not pleased with being interrupted. "May I help you?"

Yang laughed and shook her head to reveal a 100-dollar bill, which she doubled-back on, not even realising it was that much that she picked up.

"…Uh, you dropped your money." She said, blinking with shock as to why a girl would bring so much money on a jog this early in the morning.

Apparently, the girl was shocked as well, but probably for a different reason as she took back her money. She hesitated for a moment, deciding on what to say and do before settling on her answer and smiling.

"Thank you. Do forgive my manners. I'll be blunt and say that I'm surprised you'd give back my money." The girl, who Yang had just noticed had light blue eyes, replied.

"I didn't even know the bill had that much value to it but…I guess it just goes against my morals to do something as bad as stealing money." Yang laughed.

The girl nodded and took out her ear phones completely, putting it away. "Would you like to have breakfast with me? It's my treat, of course. I don't want to be in-debt with you."

Yang had never bailed out on free food, especially from someone who seemed to be rich. The two ended up jogging all the way to Coco's Latte and was served by the owner herself. Yang had gotten herself a lot of bacon with French toast, and the girl – who had then introduced herself as Weiss – had gotten a much smaller meal.

"Who'da thought that Ice Queen would have a friend." Coco had said, snickering as she dragged a chair from an empty table over to theirs.

"Ice Queen?" Yang questioned, raising a brow at Weiss before setting her eyes on Coco.

"Yup. Ice Queen. It's the nickname we gave her back at Beacon Academy. She was such a loser—she still is now but I guess it's lessened. Hey, you're Yang, right? You own the store across from ours?" Coco asked.

Yang lit up and nodded, noticing the raised interest from Weiss. "Uh huh. How'd you figure it out?"

"The co-owner came in the other day. She mentioned your name and the shop you're opening. It was just a wild guess but hey, glad to know my neighbour." Coco shrugged.

"Summer Roses? Are you a florist?" Weiss asked.

"Well, yeah. We're hella good at our job too. If you need a flower to tell someone they need to dig their own hole, we're your shop!" Yang said with a wink.

Coco and Weiss looked at each other, giving odd looks before return their eyes to Yang.

"So, you know the meaning of flowers?" Weiss said.

"Yup. Been taught about them since I was a kid." Yang replied, her ego growing by the minute.

"Damn! Nice! It's been a while since we've had a florist who knew what they were doing. The last guy who opened a flower shop, he just gave everyone random flowers, saying "it looks nice". Honestly, a rip off." Coco said with a newly found respect for Yang.

Weiss nodded in agreement. "I'll second that. I've lived in Beacon for quite a while now and the florists here all care more about the presentation rather than the meaning behind flowers."

"Aw, geez. I hope I don't let you guys down." Yang said.

The three then laughed, a feeling similar to being close friends, even though they'd only just met Yang. It was a nice feeling, especially since Coco and Yang took turns to embarrass and joke about with Weiss, who was the easiest to target about _anything_.

In the end, neither Yang or Weiss could stay for long and since they all got along so well, the blonde couldn't pass up the opportunity of making friends in this city. She was able to attain their phone numbers, changing Coco's name to "Cocolicious", and Weiss' to "Ice Queen".

 **Θ**

For the next two days before opening, Ruby stayed in the shop, regulating and speculating the activity of the flowers. She made sure that all the flowers had enough sun and water. Summer Roses wasn't just a shop to buy flowers. Ruby and her sister _grew_ the flowers, though many of them were mainly shipped from their father's flower garden in Patch.

Most people may get bored looking after basically a garden shop, but Ruby loved it. All this reminded her of her mum and the distant memories of them being a family. Also, she really didn't have anything else to do. Blake, who became a newly formed friend, wasn't working for the next two days (Ruby asked Coco, the manager of the place).

Yang was probably out at the gym, and Ruby did try the regular visits to the gym with her sister, but she wasn't committed to it. Sweating too much in such thin clothing was very uncomfortable so she passed on Yang's offers to join. She didn't even realise how long she'd been in the shop for until she saw Jaune tapping on the glass door.

Opening the door, Ruby furrowed her brows. "Jaune? What's up?"

"W-well, I didn't know where to go so I wondered if you needed help with the shop?" Jaune murmured, a little nervously.

Ruby blinked then laughed. "Lemme guess, too much free time?"

Jaune nodded, almost as if he was ashamed.

"Don't worry. Let's hang out, then! I'm going to close up the shop anyway, since I'm finished." Ruby replied, going back in to grab her things and tidying everything away.

"So, Jaune. You've lived here for a while, right?"

Another nod confirmed it.

"Perfect! Let's go do something fun! Any bowling or arcade place?" Ruby asked, a little excited since she's never been to these places before.

The earnest excitement gained a chuckle from Jaune who led her down the streets, informing her that the arcade and bowling alley were joined. It at first baffled Ruby but soon it grew into amazement. The walk to the arcade had the two talking, each telling about where they came from and their interests.

Ruby found that Jaune had dreamed of being a big-time journalist, and that his primary job is being a journalist for a small business. Then, Ruby told Jaune that she was always intrigued by literature and that maybe she'd want to be an author, though it was only a dream for her.

"Ruby, a dream is a goal…why don't you go to Beacon? They've got a really good literature course there and honestly, you seem like you'd ace the test to get in." Jaune said, being as supportive as a stranger – well, now they're friends – could be.

"I would…but it's the money that I'm worried about." Ruby replied, frowning a little before it quickly switched to a smile. "And, I'm perfectly fine with where I am right now. Summer Roses is my home and my mum's dream."

"Ruby…" Jaune murmured before shaking off the sadness with a smile. "Well, if you do consider it, I can help. I just graduated from Beacon."

That was the end of their most serious talk that day. All time was invested in beating each other in bowling and many arcade games. Although Ruby thrashed Jaune at very arcade game, the blonde boy held onto the victory over bowling, making sure to show her that he _wasn't_ a loser. It was fun, much more than the red-head had thought, which was a delight for the both of them.

"Well, see ya, Ruby!" Jaune said when they'd left the arcade.

"Yeah. I'll see you on Tuesday!" Ruby grinned, already knowing the rota for the opening week.

Once Jaune was out of sight, Ruby turned on her heels and walked to Coco Latte, craving for a cup of coffee. Expecting it, she only saw Coco and a male barista at the counter. The manager with the beret was already preoccupied so Ruby took her orders from a man named Fox.

When she had gotten her drink, Ruby observed the café for a good spot to sit, until she found a woman with long black hair and—yeah, that definitely looked like Blake. Suddenly filled with so much energy, Ruby strolled over to Blake's table, who was reading a book.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Ruby spoke out.

The girl in front of her seemed a little shocked before she looked up, her gaze immediately dissipating the surprise.

"Oh, sure…"

Then it occurred to the red-head that she didn't introduce herself properly to Blake. She laughed and sat down, placing her cup of coffee down on the table.

"Sorry! My name's Ruby Rose." She said with a grin.

"Rose? So, you went for the same store name as Coco?" Blake said as she took a sip of her tea.

"…Sorry?" Ruby was utterly confused as to what the dark-haired girl had meant.

Blake sighed and pointed towards Coco, the manager and owner of the establishment. "Coco Latte is named after that idiot over there. I was just asking if Summer Roses has something to do with your last name."

"Oh! Well…Kinda? See, my mum ran the business before my sister and I did. Her name was Summer, so, we wanted to build a chain here in Beacon." If Blake noticed that Ruby referred her mother in the past tense, the girl didn't let on.

"Hmm…It's a nice name for a flower shop. Well, I can't wait for your opening." Blake said with a genuine smile.

Hearing those words re-energised Ruby, making her take a quick sip of her coffee, forgetting that it was still hot. "Ack! Hot! Hot!" She shouted, trying to blow the heat coming from her tongue.

"Thanks. You'll be thisiting (visiting) us at the sthor (store)?" She said, showing the stars in her eyes

Blake laughed and nodded at the poor tongue-burnt girl.

"We're kind of friends now, so yeah."

"So, what days do you work at Coco's?" Ruby asked, intrigued and wanting to know when to pop by to have a chat with her new friend.

The yellow-eyed girl shook her head. "I don't work at Coco Latte." The puzzled look on Ruby's face made her smile a little more. "It was kind of a volunteer thing the other day. She was short-staffed and since we're friends, I helped her out. I have a different career."

"Awwww, that's so nice!" Ruby said, nodding in approval, ticking off her "good friend" list. "But what do you do, then?"

"Me? Well, I'm an investor. I share-hold many small businesses and sometimes give them advice." Blake replied.

Ruby whistled, admitting that it sounded cool. "I guess we lucked out on getting investment from you, huh?"

Blake laughed a little, picking up her cup to sip again. "Well, you seem fine right now, but I'll lend you a hand in the future, if you need it, friend."

"Well, that's a deal I'd be looking forward to making."

And the two shook on it, playfully of course, though with Blake's monotonous voice, Ruby couldn't really tell if she actually meant it. Oh well! Future Ruby could deal with that nonsense. Present Ruby only wanted to talk more with Blake. None of those happened. Not when the red head received a sceptical text from her beloved sister.

Ruby raised a brow at the nickname displaced on her phone, which had the fingerprints of Yang all over it.

 **Yangarang:** RUBY! I MADE FRIENDS WITH A FRICKIN BILLIONAIRE!

* * *

Well! That was a fun ride, right?

I hope you guys liked the beginning? I'm planning on writing a ton of chapters for this story.

There's just one thing I ask of you,

Please give me some favs and maybe a comment here and there.

I want some loving for this piece! Thanks! :D


	2. Opening the Front Door

**Where the Flowers Lay**

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (assumed), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter Two: Opening the Front Door

The text wasn't very convincing to Ruby, mostly because the two siblings have never met billionaires or celebrities before. Sure, Yang had a greater shot at meeting one, with her being more social, but Ruby doubt the blonde _actually_ knew a rich person. Besides, did rich people live in Beacon? Weren't they all supposed to reside in one specific rich area that obviously only they could afford? Beacon was too affordable for _rich_ people.

However, Ruby was not ready for the sight that laid upon her when she got home that day. Yang had brought the rich person _home_ with her and they were chilling on the couch in the two's living room.

"Pyrrha Nikos?!" The red head exclaimed, gasping loudly before running towards the beauty that was situated on the couch.

"Hello!" The green-eyed girl replied with a smile.

"Oh my gosh! I'm a HUGE fan! We even have Pumpkin Pete's cereal in our kitchen! I'll go get it!" Ruby spoke very quickly.

"A-ah! N-no need. I'm very happy to meet you too, Ruby." Pyrrha said.

Beside the celebrity, Yang snickered, holding her stomach in as she did. The younger sister glared at her for a second before her starry eyes went back to the red-haired woman.

"How do you know my sister?" She enquired, quite interested to know.

Pyrrha took this time to lean back and look at Yang, as if doing so would bring up a memory.

"Well, we met by chance. I was training at Port Gym in town and Yang came in, looking like she was going to burst the whole building down." Whilst telling the story, she giggled. "I was a little wary at first and Yang didn't even notice me, not even when we were next to each other on the tread mill. She only noticed when I stopped to catch a break."

"Yeah, I ended up doing a double take and, well, fell." Yang finished, even showing the bandages on her elbows and knees.

"It was a humorous way to meet, indeed." Pyrrha nodded.

Between this, Ruby gasped and cursed at herself for not joining Yang. Why was it that every time she turned Yang down, something fun happened to her sister? It was totally uncool.

"Wait, so you live here, Pyrrha?"

"Yes. Though, my abode is nearer to Beacon Academy—" Pyrrha was unfortunately interrupted by the alarming chime of her phone.

The red-head frowned as she read the message on her phone. Then, after a short sigh, she returned her smile to the sisters, standing up and doing a little bow.

"I'm sorry but I'm scheduled for a photoshoot. I would have liked to stay more but—"

"No, no. It's all cool, Pyrrha. We still good for the gym tomorrow?" Yang asked, not bothered that her friend had to leave.

"Of course, Yang. It's much nicer to work out with a friend." The two shared a smile before Yang also stood up.

The two walked to the door, leaving Ruby frozen with her mouth open. Pyrrha said her goodbyes to the two, whilst Ruby was still frozen with her mouth open. Yang closed the door and went to the kitchen, meanwhile Ruby still had her mouth open. Yang came back into the living room with a can of beer, in the meantime, Ruby did not close her open mouth.

"Wait! Hold a minute!" The nineteen-year-old screamed, scrambling to her feet and composing herself.

Yang was mid-drinking but put the drink down with a sigh. She crossed her legs and raised a brow, waiting for her very dramatic sister to start and finish.

"You lied to me!"

"What?" Yang replied, puzzled as to what Ruby meant.

A huff of frustration later, Ruby's silver eyes narrowed at Yang.

"Pyrrha's a celeb, sure. But she's not a _billionaire_ , sis. She's at least just a millionaire." Ruby said, matter-of-factually.

The blonde sister rolled her eyes, turning her head towards the TV. She reached for the remote, turning on the TV to find a good show to watch.

"I'm sorry that I don't know her net-worth, Rubes." Yang said whilst waving the conversation off.

However, her sister wasn't having it and stomped to the couch, sitting down beside her. She couldn't believe so many things were happening today; two days before them opening the shop.

"Look, Ruby. Take a break for the last two days, okay?"

That caught her attention. The event of meeting Pyrrha dissipating from her mind as she stared at Yang…who was picking her nose.

"W-why?" Ruby asked, very uncomfortable. She never really was used to Yang picking her nose. Uncle Qrow did that often too…it was so gross to see.

There was silence before Yang stopped picking her bogey-free nose. Violet eyes stared down at silver, eye lids lowered to show a manner of seriousness.

"All you've been doing is going to the shop and thinking about the shop. You need a healthy life outside of mum's shop."

Ruby frowned at this. Of course, she knew that. She, in fact, did have a life outside of the shop. Ruby's made plenty of friends…if Blake and Jaune counted as plenty. She understood where Yang was coming from; they left Patch to move on from their mum's death. It was just that, nowhere apart from Summer Roses felt like home. Nowhere else felt like Summer was still with them. Ruby knew that Yang felt the same, but they weren't the same people. Yang was stronger and that's why she wasn't as attached as Ruby.

Ruby knew, but she was really scared of leaving it all behind. After all, she's decided that her life was going to revolve around that little flower shop. She was willing to push away her dream to keep her mother's dream going, because she was weak.

"…I know, Yang. I know."

The great thing about being really close to her sister was that Yang knew Ruby and that meant she knew what she was thinking. And it helped because she also knew not to push the conversation further. Ruby was very grateful for that.

They ended up watching the news, which the reporter went on an endless rant about the awful decisions billionaire Jacques Schnee made. The two had no clue what he was saying but it did give them an insight on how Vale's trading with Atlas was doing. Would be a little hard to stock on perennial plants, since a few of them the girls couldn't grow in Vale.

 **Θ**

The next two days couldn't have gone any _slower_. Yang thought that since the big day was coming, these minor days would speed by but nope. It was the exact opposite. Somehow, the minutes were taking hours to pass by and Yang did everything she could to speed it up. She even tried reading. Reading! It was boring as heck.

And now, she was stuck outside their apartment because she was complaining so much to Ruby that she forgot the keys in the apartment. The tall blonde sighed, shaking her head and looking at their blue door. Ugh. Why did it have to be _blue_? Why not yellow? Or the sleek black colour?

"Having a problem there, Yang?" A voice spoke behind her.

Alarmed, Yang jumped out of her skin, pivoting to find herself gazing down at the woman with short black hair but kind yellow eyes. Then, a sudden rush of relief washed over the girl, thankful to have ran into their landlady.

"Oh, Mrs Belladonna! Thank goodness you're here!" Yang breathed.

"Please, call me Kali. We are familiar enough to be on first name terms." The older woman said with a smile.

Yang may be laughed at for saying this but Mrs Belladonna – Kali – was a really pretty woman, even though she was in her forties and had a child. The blonde was always mesmerised by the colour of her eyes, though it may be because yellow was undoubtedly her favourite colour—still! If Kali was only single, still young and also into girls, Yang would definitely have tried her fresh and smooth moves on the woman.

"Sorry…Kali. It's kind of embarrassing to ask but…"

"Let me guess: You locked yourself out of the house?" Yang nodded, to which Kali laughed. "You remind me of my daughter. She can be forgetful sometimes too."

Whilst Kali was taking out her keys and finding the right one for Yang's door, the blonde pondered on the image of Mrs Belladonna's daughter. Now, she's met with both Kali and her husband – Ghira – before when they were buying the apartment, but she's never encountered their daughter. She didn't even know her _name_. Just wondering what this known daughter would look like, Yang summarised that she would absolutely be hot, like her mum—not that Yang would date her mum. Adultery was not cool!

"Ah, and here you go, Yang." Kali said, turning the lock and opening the door.

Yang gave her a radiant smile and thanked her before Kali waved her off, going down the hall towards who-knew-where. Swiftly, she grabbed her keys and mentally ticked off her list of things needed before leaving the apartment again. Yang had no schedule today, but it didn't mean that she couldn't preoccupy herself. She decided on bugging Coco at the café, since that girl was going to be there.

On her way there, Yang had to go through the mall, where all the teenagers hung out to smoke or shop. She had to roll her eyes at their innocence. Just wait until they move out of their parents' home, where they'll be too broke to even walk. She thanked the gods that their shop was on the outside of the shopping centre, facing the streets rather than the major outlets.

Coco Latte, like any other time that Yang's been in there, was coated with the coffee aroma. Just like Ruby's addiction to smelling books, Yang inhaled the smell a little too loudly, causing for a few stares. It didn't really embarrass her, and she kept on moving until she ordered her drink and leaned against the counter.

"What's up, Coco?" Yang said, grinning.

The girl that she was referring to, was seated on a stool near the wall, trying to get something out of her teeth with a toothpick.

"Ah, nut'in much. You bored?" Coco asked, now standing up, seeming satisfied to have accomplished her job.

Yang groaned and nodded in response.

"Good. I need you to help out my girl with a project."

At this, Yang raised a brow, wondering who Coco's girl was. They were new friends, so she didn't know much about the beret-wearing manager, apart from the fact that she was gay. (It was so obvious.)

"Where is she?" Yang asked, chugging half of her coffee, even if it was hot. Maybe she was weird but the burning feeling in her throat was more calming than painful.

Coco leaned back against the wall and knocked on the door that read: "Staff Only". Within a second, a girl, a little shorter than her, with long brown hair, came out. She was also wearing the Coco Latte uniform, but she had a notepad and pen by her side.

"Velv, meet Yang. Yang, Velvet. Blonde chick, here, just volunteered to help you out, babe." Coco said, coolly.

Velvet looked from Yang to Coco, back and forth for a few seconds before she gave the unfamiliar women a warm smile. The two shook hands, Yang noticing a few pins of rabbits on the uniform. The girl must have loved rabbits, and who could blame her? They were small, fluffy and cute; three of Yang's favourite things. It was also one of the reasons why the Xiao Long-Rose family had a corgi called Zwei, whom she missed a lot.

After the introductions, Coco went to the tills to help serve some decaffeinated customers, leaving Yang with her lovely girlfriend. Yang wouldn't say that the two "hit it off". Velvet was great, she laughed at some of Yang's jokes, countered back with jokes too, but there wasn't really much of a conversation.

"…So what were we doing again?" Yang blurted out, when Velvet took out her laptop.

"Oh, right! I'm making a collage for my photography project. So, will you be able to search up some good flower pictures for me?" Velvet asked, unaware of who she was talking to.

She was talking to the master of flowers. The florist in the highest. The top dog in _de_ flowering—okay, that one was a total lie, but it made for a good joke…that Yang didn't say. Well, she would tell the joke later to Coco. No problem.

"No need for, mi amigo…a?" She waved it off. Yang was horrible at Spanish. "I'm a florist. We can go to my shop and take some flowers out to photograph if you want."

Velvet opened her mouth, but no words uttered out. Yang took this as a good sign? She wasn't sure though nonetheless she smiled anyway.

"Oh my gosh, Yang. That would be perfect! Thank you—I'll go get my camera!" Velvet hurried got out of her seat, rushing to the back like she'd miss something if she was slow.

The blonde laughed at that, noticing how lovingly Coco was gazing in the direction Velvet disappeared from. Yang shipped it. She was going to scroll through her phone when she heard the table buzz, making her stop her movement. It was either an earthquake or some beauty and the Beast shtick was happening.

It was neither. The source of the vibrations was coming from the phone on the table. Yang assumed it was Velvet's, from the wallpaper that showed her, Coco and another person, though the girl's only revealing features were her black hair and bow. There was a text from a person named Blake, and Yang didn't mean to see it, but it was right there, in front of her face.

 **Blake:** Velvet, thanks for the peppermint tea

 **Blake:** Love you *hearts*

Yang raised a brow at this, glancing between the phone, Coco and the door that Velvet disappeared through. Now, Yang didn't want to jump to conclusions. She didn't know these people a lot and well, she couldn't judge them without knowing them. But, this looked like some kind of polyamorous relationship or cheating, with this Blake dude included. Though, they could be friends, but would a guy be that affectionate without being a little gay?

Yang thought hard, not even realising that Velvet had returned until she grabbed her phone from the table, immediately texting this Blake person back – Yang assumed. Velvet seemed to be smiling whilst doing so, and Yang really didn't want to intrude but she had to ask. Maybe it was wrong to even think that or dare question the woman in the middle of it.

Unfortunately, Yang was never one to be able to shut her mouth. Ruby experienced it first hand, and that was how her little sister ended up with a boyfriend named Oscar in her last year of high school. Yang did feel bad but hey, Ruby needed help with finding out what she was, and the world would be damned if she didn't help her baby sister!

"So, Velvet…I didn't mean to peek at your messages but…" Yang tried to find the right words to say, trying to make it come off not too judgementally. "This Blake person…are you dating him?"

Silence filled the air between the two, with Velvet frozen in her spot and Yang anxiously waiting for an answer. Maybe she shouldn't have asked. What if she got dragged into their love triangle drama as the mediator, or worse, _messenger_.

Instead of a reasonable response, the brunette laughed. She laughed her guts out and Yang wasn't joking. The girl was on the floor, leaning back against the chair and holding onto the table to stop herself from lying on the floor. In the mist of all the laughter, Coco walked over, her brows raised.

"What's goin' on here?" She asked, her voice firm but not intimidating.

Yang shrugged, having no clue as to why Velvet was laughing hysterically.

"Oh my gosh, Yang!" Velvet breathed. "Coco! Oh my gosh!"

Coco looked at Yang, a reflection of confusion in their faces, before she settled on questioning Velvet.

"What's so funny, V?"

"Yang! Sh-she called—" Velvet gasped. "She called Blake—" And gasped again. "She called Blake a—" And again. "Blake a boy!" Then she was off again, clutching her stomach.

Now, Yang not knowing who this Blake person was, was utterly shocked. She looked over at Coco again, but this time, the beret girl had her lips shut tightly. When they made eye contact, the girl let out a raspberry sound, not able to hold her own giggles.

"Sorry, Yang…That's just hella funny." Coco said, a lot more relaxed than Velvet.

"I don't understand…" Yang frowned, now a little concerned because Velvet looked like she was running out of breath.

"Well, Blake's not a dude. She's a girl and it's funny since she…well, she's just Blake. It's unexpected." Coco shrugged.

After that, Velvet had calmed down and gave a more elaborate and reasonable answer, much better than Coco's simple one. So, Yang understood their clamours, though it did embarrass her a little when she thought back to it. If she were to ever meet this Blake person, Yang was definitely going to apologise.

Four the next few hours, Yang and Velvet stayed in her shop, taking a few pictures inside with the flowers and bringing them outside for a better shot. The two hung out for a bit; Yang sent the photographs from the camera on her laptop whilst Velvet edited her collage. The atmosphere was quiet, but it was comfortable to work in.

 **Θ**

Today was the day. Ruby couldn't even sleep; she was so excited to open shop. At 5AM, she rung up a sleepy Jaune, making sure that he couldn't be late for the opening at 7AM. At 5:01AM, the hyperactive girl jumped onto her sister's bed to get her to wake up. By half past, Ruby had already made breakfast for the two, with a side of coffee to keep her energy up and wake Yang fully. The girls left at 7:09, with Ruby complaining that they left a little too late.

They should have left at 7 but Yang was really slow getting ready and eating her food (she ate and _watched_ , which took her forever!) However, they made it to the shop in under 15 minutes, much to the red-head's delight. As expected, Jaune was there, though he was falling asleep and that made Ruby giggle. She was going to have to buy the poor guy a coffee since she woke him up so early.

"Hey, Jaune-y boy." Yang murmured, still not fully awake. She yawned as she opened the shop.

Ruby and Jaune rushed in after the door was unlocked and they went to their stations. Jaune was on till duty and Ruby was supposed to be out in the back doing stock, though she would also maintain the front and give customer service. Yang was only there for the opening day and help to start the morning, then she was off until closing to help maintain the shop before they closed.

"You guys think you can handle?" Yang asked, spraying water at the pots and flowers to keep them hydrated.

Ruby had her gloves on and nodded to her older sister, getting ready to heave the box of seeds out of the stock room. Jaune on the other hand, was not so confident and had to take short breathes to keep cool and remember his role. He gave Yang a smile of reassurance nonetheless.

Then, the door bell jingled, making the three staff members stiffen just a little. Yang and Ruby calmed down, though after they heard a very familiar "Hello!".

The two sisters welcomed their friend with a great smile, though Jaune was somewhat baffled. He looked between the employers and the customer, not so sure that she was actually a customer after glimpsing at the expressions they made.

"Pyrrha! What a surprise to see you!" Ruby chirped, her eyes shining as she waved.

The tall red-head smiled at the shorter red-head, clearly delighted. She then went to receive a high-five from Yang, who had anticipated her arrival.

"You came early, Pyrrha." Yang said. "Not that I'm complaining. I was thinking about leaving anyway."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I mean, you said you wanted to hang out and that you were bringing a plus one. I didn't want to make a bad impression, plus," She paused, taking a look around the shop before laying her eyes on the blonde boy. "I wanted to see how your shop looked—Hi! I'm Pyrrha!"

She then took the initiative and walked over to the counter, hand in front of her to shake, smiling at the boy.

Jaune looked at her sceptically and like it was no big deal, shook her hand.

"Jaune…er, are you interested in any flowers?" He asked carefully, not sure if being polite would gain brownie points from the employers.

Pyrrha just laughed and declined cheerily before Ruby saw that she was looking at her again. The celebrity opened her arms and Ruby leaned over the counter and gave her a quick hug. Ruby already knew that Pyrrha was a hugger – she was a diehard fan who knew stuff like this. Then, Yang and Pyrrha was out of the door.

"Was she a friend of yours?" Jaune asked, utterly clueless as to what happened.

Whilst Ruby was in the middle of mentally jumping around, Jaune's question shattered her daydream.

"What?! You don't know who Pyrrha Nikos is?!" Ruby screamed, practically grabbing Jaune's shoulders and shaking him. "What is wrong with you?!"

Jaune immediately apologised and confirmed that he did not know who Pyrrha was. His excuse though, it had holes in it, like he didn't own a TV or had any social media. What kind of millennial _didn't_ at least have something like RemBook, or Faunstagram, or even Dustchat. It was unheard of, and Ruby used to live in the _countryside_.

Anyhow, they got back to work and about 2 hours later, a young woman rushed into the flower shop. She had short ginger hair and electrifying blue eyes. This woman scanned the whole flower shop before setting her eyes on Jaune. She marched up to him with such power that Ruby wanted to hide away, however she was supervising Jaune for the first few hours, so she just hid behind the door.

"H-how may I help you?" Jaune asked nervously.

The ginger thought for a second before leaning on the counter.

"I need a bouquet of flowers that screams 'FORGIVE ME!' Do you have that?" The ginger replied.

This was Ruby's cue to jump in and save Jaune from the scary customer. She opened the door and walked over to them with a lot of confidence.

"I think—" Ruby began, but her heart started to beat really loud and her voice got stuck in her throat. "I…" She began again, though this time she was becoming stiff.

Jaune seemed to have noticed this and tried to distract the customer by asking her questions about quantity and if she wanted anything else. This seemed to have helped a little because Ruby was able to take control of her body again. It was a weird feeling, what she felt just then. It's never happened before, and she would probably have to tell Yang about it. However, now, she was able to help out the customer.

"We can ring up a bouquet of hyacinths, some violet and blue ones. The violet means to ask for forgiveness and the blue is sincerity." Ruby said, smiling at the customers.

"That will be perfect! My partner would love that! He hates it when I get him flowers that don't have the right meaning." The ginger woman had said, laughing as well.

"Well, you can always come to us again if you have that problem." Ruby replied, whilst Jaune went to collect a handful of hyacinths, blue and violet, for the customer.

The blonde then went through the process of counting and inputting the total into the till. When the young lady paid, Ruby had already wrapped up the flowers nicely, which the ginger was grateful of. She left with the same amount of noise she entered in with, which humoured Ruby.

"Are you okay?" Jaune asked warily.

Ruby looked over at him, not sure in the slightest of what he was talking about. That was until she remembered the feeling she had. That awful feeling she didn't want to experience again. However, she wasn't feeling it anymore, so it was okay, for now.

"I'm fine, Jaune. Let's get back to work!"

And they left it at that.

 **Θ**

Yang and Pyrrha had set off from the flower shop, on their way to meet with Weiss. The short white-haired girl had planned to meet Yang and her friend at a fancy restaurant that her sister owned.

They arrived 10 minutes earlier than planned, however Weiss was already seated at their reserved table. She had ordered a cup of coffee for herself, probably five minutes before since it was still really hot. Yang smiled though, when she was faced with the girl, however she had noticed the way Pyrrha stiffened for a brief second.

"Hey there, Ice Queen." Yang greeted, plopping herself down opposite the girl.

Weiss merely rolled her eyes before laying them on the new friend. Yang saw the analytical gaze that she gave, something similar to when they first met – except without the surprise.

"It's nice to meet you, Pyrrha Nikos." Weiss said, ignoring Yang's greeting.

It would have stung, but Yang had interacted with Weiss twice after they met, and she immediately knew how the girl acted. She had that attitude that a lot of anime girls and sometimes guys had. Ruby once called it tsundere? That was probably right.

"Weiss Schnee…It's a pleasure of mine too." Pyrrha spoke calmly, seating herself next to Yang.

Now this was news to the blonde. Weiss' name was Schnee? Wasn't that the same last name as the rich billionaire dude?

"Please, Yang. Don't mention his name in front of me again." Weiss said, aloud.

Yang blinked. "Whoops, sorry. I didn't know I was speaking my thoughts…But seriously? You couldn't have warned me about your fame? I'm friends with _two_ famous people now!"

Pyrrha, less uncomfortable, giggled a little at Yang's exclamation, whilst Weiss had the opposite expression, shaking her head in disapproval.

"I thought you _knew_. I mean…we Schnee have a horrible reputation." Weiss muttered, earning a frown from both Yang and Pyrrha.

Deciding it was for the best, Yang changed subject to her friends' delight. They ended up ordering brunch and Yang and Pyrrha also got to meet the white-haired girl's sister, Winter. She was lovely, though strict, which Yang would admit was _definitely_ her type. The girl even commented on Winter to Weiss, who blushed ferociously, kicking the girl under the table.

"Keep your voice down! And don't you dare hit on my sister!" Weiss shot.

Yang placed a hand on her chest, feigning a shocked expression.

"Oh, Weissy, I didn't know you were _jealous_. Don't worry, you're the only Schnee for me." She winked.

This earned another giggle from Pyrrha. Weiss gasped and placed her face in her hands, acknowledging that no one was going to take her side. Pyrrha did apologise but if the rumours about her were true, she was too kind to admit the truth.

"It's so weird…that you flirt" Weiss murmured, as if something about it was foreign to her. Yang wanted to question it, but she changed the subject immediately. "I hope I didn't bore you, Pyrrha."

The red-head shook her head and gave the girl a genuine smile. "No, no. I'm having fun, and honestly…the media criticise you so much, I'm glad that you aren't actually as bad as the news put you out to be."

Weiss nodded, glad to have cleared that. "Not all of us Schnees are bad. At least I can confirm that my sister and I aren't too bad."

Yang raised her hands, showing Weiss that she didn't need to prove herself to her. "Hey, if Coco's fine with you, I'm sure you aren't bad."

This made her smile and nod in agreement. "Yeah. She makes quite the good judgement—though you can _never_ tell her that I said those words. It's not a nice taste in my mouth."

"I would like to meet this Coco person too." Pyrrha added.

A laugh later and Yang solemnly swore not to speak of it, and also arrange a date for Pyrrha to be acquainted with the beret-wearing girl.

The next hour was spent with the girls talking about rich people problems – well it was more of a Weiss and Pyrrha thing, especially since Yang wasn't rich and the girls didn't know if cows actually looked like cows. Yang was glad to have set this whole thing up, since she thought they'd make good friends oddly enough.

Occasionally, Yang would add a bit of her countryside wisdom to the talk, Weiss would be sceptical of her words, and Pyrrha would naively take it all in. They were a strange trio to have but it fit. Then, Winter came into the batch.

The blonde would consistently drop flirtatious jokes towards the older Schnee, who would reject her straightforwardly. Weiss would apologise after the joke as well for her sister – Yang noticed how much she wanted her sister to approve of her and her friends – and Pyrrha would comment on how great the beverages and food were.

"Speaking of sisters, you have one, right?" Weiss asked.

Yang and Pyrrha both confirmed.

"Her name's Ruby. She's busy at the shop right now." Yang said.

"And she's a cute and energetic girl too." Pyrrha added.

Weiss looked between the two, clearly not pleased as she had the bitch face resting on her.

"When do _I_ get to meet this sister of yours?" Weiss asked impatiently. She was polite, but clearly rude in a Weiss-sense.

Although it was a little intimidating, Yang couldn't help but laugh. The girl was shorter than her for heaven's sake! It was nowhere near intimidating.

"Soon, I guess. The girl's got some things on her hand she needs to sort out first—that only if you want a proper introduction." Yang replied.

Weiss sighed and leaned back on her seat, nodding. "I can wait."

It ended there for the three. Pyrrha had to leave town for a few hours to be at an interview somewhere else in Vale, Weiss was meant to meet the man-who-shall-not-be-named before their meeting in Atlas, so she had to catch a private jet – lucky. And, well, Yang wanted to go back to the shop to see how it was going.

"We should make a group chat." Yang suggested.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea!" Pyrrha agreed.

"Yeah, whatever." Weiss complied.

Then, they all went their separate ways. It was, of course, after Yang added them to a group chat called "Yang & the Two Riches"

Yang didn't go back to the shop straight away. She went shopping for a bit and also popped into Coco Latte to see if Coco was around. That at least took an hour and so Yang arrived two hours before closing. What she didn't expect to see was her sister laughing whilst talking to what looked like a customer.

Jaune was nowhere to be seen, assuming that Ruby took over the till and he went to stock. Still, Yang was glad that Ruby was socialising. She came in with a loud entrance, getting the attention of both her sister and the new person.

She stopped in her tracks when she was faced with…well, the young woman looked like a younger version of Kali. She had the same yellow eyes and black hair, except it was much longer. It suited her well, and even made her very attractive. Dang, the girl was really pretty.

"Yang! Hi! Meet my friend, Blake!" Ruby said, waving her sister over.

Blake? Where had she heard that name before?

* * *

 **Planning on making this story very long, maybe more than 20 chapters? Minimum would be 20. Remember that this is slowburn! Sorry again!**

 **Oh, and just to warn you guys, I'm British. So many of the words may not be familiar or be the same spelling, I do apologise.**  
 **Again, drop a fav for me, lovely people!**


	3. A Speck of Thunder

**Where the Flowers Lay**

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (assumed), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter Three: A Speck of Thunder

"Hi, Yang." The black-haired beauty spoke. "I've heard quite a bit about you from your sister."

Yang smiled at Blake, nodding in her direction as she made her way towards them. "Wish I could say the same…but I didn't know she had friends."

She could see Ruby glare in her peripheral, making a big gesture to question why Yang would think that. The blonde just rolled her eyes because it was harder to believe that her introverted sister had made friends than Zwei having a special fire move, and that's impossible…maybe.

"That's a little harsh to say about your sister." Blake replied, raising a brow.

Yang shrugged and leaned on the counter, trying to come off as cool. She wanted to make a good impression on the lovely lass.

"Ruby's not especially skilled in making friends," then Yang raised her hand to ruffle the red head's hair. "But I'm glad you have a good eye for spotting amazing kiddos like her, Blake."

Ruby groaned and swatted Yang's hand away, obviously disliking the childish treatment. Back at Patch, the older sibling was always smothering the younger girl and looking after her like she was a child. Old habits die hard, was something that Yang quoted from Uncle Qrow, who claimed that it was his own creation, though Ruby found it in a book that was written _way_ before Uncle Qrow was even born.

" _Yang._ I'm nineteen, already. Stop treating me like I'm a baby." Ruby pouted, not convincing Yang nor Blake that her statement was true.

"What do you mean? You'll always be a baby to me, Rubes. You're my _baby sister_." Yang grinned and messed the girl's hair one more time before Ruby got out of reach.

"Ugh! That's it! I'm retreating to the back!" Ruby announced, glaring at Yang once again before giving her friend a sheepish smile. "Thanks for getting Jaune and I some coffee, Blake. And, sorry in advance…that Yang will be taking your order now."

Before Blake could utter a word, Ruby ran through the staff door, leaving a small swirl of rose petals to fall to the ground. Yang frowned a little, wondering if some of the roses were dying, however she changed her expressions when faced with the black-haired beauty.

"One moment, please!" She said, then making her way around the counter to put on her apron, which had the shop's name and logo on it. "Done! Now," She clasped her hands together and smiled. "How may I help you?"

 **Θ**

Usually, Yang would have attempted to flirt with beautiful girls, maybe try to get their numbers or ask them out for coffee, but despite her urges, she took her job quite seriously. There were things that Yang put in front of pretty women; Ruby, Zwei, Bumblebee (her motorcycle back at Patch) and Summer Roses. No matter how much Yang liked Blake's yellow eyes, how much the girl ran a hand through her thick black hair and revealing her smooth and fair skin, the blush she held when smelling her bouquet, Yang was going to be professional.

The Xiao Long-Rose family came to Beacon not to flirt on the job, but to achieve greater heights for Summer Roses, for their late mother. Both daughters knew this responsibility and no way was fluttering feelings going to tamper with their objective.

Well…at least on the _job_. Yang was definitely going to ask Ruby to bring Blake along to their parties just so that she could get to know her more. Maybe even slip in a few of her jokes.

Blake left after receiving her change, congratulating Yang on opening the shop. She smiled, a little proud, as she waved the black-haired beauty off. It wasn't really eventful after that, not unless Jaune's weird quadruple sneeze counted. The girls finally closed the shop, taking count of how many flowers they had sold and also making sure their stock wasn't stolen and in order. Their employee left just as the clock struck 5.

"We're not opening tomorrow, are we?" Ruby asked, when Yang turned the key to lock the shop.

"Nope. Tomorrow's Tuesday, our break." Yang grinned, to which her sister rolled her eyes at.

"We only just started, and you hardly helped." Ruby replied, deadpanned.

Yang chuckled at her response, holding her little sister in a headlock, which may seem a little harsh, but she promised she wasn't hurting Ruby in any way.

"Yang! My neck hurts!" Okay, she lied a little.

"C'mon, Rubes. I was only joking." The blonde spoke, letting go of her sister. "But, I want us to hang out tomorrow. We need to talk about things like the little party we're going to throw with Jaune and Ren."

She wiggled her eyebrows, smirking and recollecting the time they last had a party back in Patch. Ruby ended up kissing Oscar's cousin – granted that they broke up years ago. It got out a big reaction to many of their friends since his cousin was a girl. Drunk Ruby was definitely something similar to sober Yang.

The red head nudged her older sister, embarrassed at the memories. She was so caught up in it that she managed to trip on her own feet, almost falling but managing to catch herself. They headed home that night to do nothing in particular. Since Ruby had worked, Yang volunteered to cook for them. It ended up with them having to order pizza…and adding a new frying pan on the shopping list.

 **Θ**

"So…Why did we have to come here to talk about the party?" Enquired a very lazy Ruby.

The sisters ended up watching a scary movie last night, which ended around 1AM, so waking up at 7AM just to end up sitting in Coco Latte was not good for the younger sister's body.

Yang sat herself across from Ruby, giving her a shot of expresso to wake her up. "Because I wanted another person's opinion in on this."

"Who is this other per—"

"Sup, ladies." Coco dropped in, sitting in between them.

"Ruby, this is Coco, my new best friend." Yang introduced.

The red head just rolled her eyes and leaned back. "I _know_ who Coco is, Yang. I'm basically a regular here."

Coco nodded to reassure. "It's true. She's even met Blake and that chick rarely comes here."

Yang gasped and slammed her fist down, though gently. "You met Blake?!"

"You met her too!" Ruby replied, furrowing her brows with confusion.

Luckily there were only a few customers within the shop including the sisters, otherwise they would have probably been kicked temporarily out of the café.

"What do you _mean_ , I met Blake!" Yang yelled back.

"Oh my days, you met her _yesterday_!" Ruby argued back.

There was a pause in the air, the silence enabling Yang to recollect the memories of yesterday; of the black-haired beauty…who was called Blake.

"…She's your Blake? Black hair, yellow eyes?" Yang asked Coco for reassurance.

Coco, herself, wasn't sure what was happening, but it was all amusing. She just shrugged and trusted that Ruby was right in the fact that Blake did meet Yang yesterday.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure there's tons of Blakes with black hair and yellow eyes in the world but…Ruby and Blake are friends, so I assume she's right."

"Huh, small world." Yang murmured, now taking a gulp of her coffee. "Anyway, let's get back to the matter at hand."

Ruby and Coco nodded and sat, waiting patiently for Yang to continue her talk, since she was going to organise the whole gathering. At least, Ruby hoped it was a gathering. She didn't like the thought of having to clean up after a party like the ones in Patch.

"Well, we're going to have the party at our house. I'm going to stock us up on alcohol and fizzy drinks. Don't want too many people to come. I was just thinking about inviting our friends, y'know?" Yang said.

To this, Ruby sighed in relief.

"I need your help with the decorations, Coco, but also invite our friends too." Yang told her.

The beret girl leaned back and hummed. "You mean Velvet and Weiss? I can get Velv to come but you'd have to personally invite Ice Queen. She's a rich girl, they like hand invites and stuff. Just tell me your address and date and I'll be round to help you out."

"Awesome. Rubes, can you stock us up on snacks? I want you to invite Blake too. We'll have Jaune and Ren come for the heavy lifting." Yang said. She meant moving around the furniture, which she could do herself but her being her, she was going to be lazy.

"Sounds like it's settled. When's it gonna be?" Coco asked, whipping out her phone to put it on her calendar.

Yang looked at Ruby and the two had a telepathic conversation. It mainly involved brow wiggled and intense staring, but they finalised on which day and time.

"Sunday. Around 6PM. I'll text you the address later." The blonde informed her friend.

After that, Yang and Ruby left the café to explore around Beacon for the fifth time. Except, this time, Yang had a different plan in mind. They took Ruby's car (Crescent Rose) out for a drive, which Yang driving. The two passed a few streets with shops and arcades and such, but Yang then took a different route.

They ended up in front of Beacon Academy, which was a really big school with dorms within its campus. Yang had gotten out, but Ruby was a little more hesitant. They both knew that this wasn't for Yang, who had just finished her 3 years of college with Signal's college.

"Come on, Ruby. We both know you want this." Yang said softly.

Even with the warmth in her voice, Ruby couldn't trust to leave the car, not until Yang told her that it was only to look around. A tour of the place.

She found out after they began their tour of the campus, that Yang applied for a tour before they left Patch. Her older sister was really looking out for her, and it really made Ruby happy, but she was still conflicted. Ruby had already finished school and it was too late to apply for the autumn semester, so she thought of giving up. Now, knowing how much effort Yang put in to help Ruby at least try university, she really wanted to. The only problem was that it meant she'd have less time at Summer Roses.

Ruby couldn't lie how much she liked the atmosphere. The quiet chatters across the quad, the smell of summer in the air. The buildings looked modern as well, unlike the ruins back at Patch. The young adult was even able to talk to a few teachers, though she sounded like she wasn't keen in attended in the car, Ruby was bursting with questions. She found out that the teacher she was talking to, Prof Goodwitch, was the professor who was currently teaching English Literature.

They stayed at the Beacon Academy for much longer than was expected but as long as it helped Ruby consider applying, Yang was okay with it. The two went home with a prospectus for Beacon Academy and a very red Ruby.

"I guess you didn't find today useful." Yang teased.

"Shut up, Yang!" Ruby huffed, but she smiled and hugged her immediately. "…Thanks. I really appreciate you looking out for me."

"What kind of big sister would I be if I didn't?" She replied, laughing.

The two went home after that, having takeout for dinner. Ruby, since she wasn't working tomorrow, spent the rest of the night binge watching a series called My Little Grimm – Yang couldn't stop making fun of her because of that. Yang on the other hand, was going to have to wake up early anyway. She wanted to stop breaking her morning jog routine. So, the blonde sister went to bed first.

 **Θ**

Just like the Monday, when they first opened shop, Yang was met by the two's employee. Today it was Ren, who was more experienced in a florist shop than Jaune. This was going to be an exciting day!

"Morning, Ren." Yang chirped, opening the shop and allowing the young man with a pink strip in his hair in.

Ren bowed just a little before politely saying good morning. He was really nice, something that Yang and Ruby both liked. They ended up setting up the shop faster than Monday. Since stock wasn't going to be needed in moving around, Yang asked Ren if he wanted to work at the tills or guide customers. He took the latter choice.

For at least 4 hours – Yang had definitely not stared at the clock – the shop had plenty of customers window shopping and occasionally 1 or 2 who bought a single flower. The blonde admitted that it was busier than Patch, but the window shopping was annoying. Even if there were long hours between customers in Patch, every customer who came in had bought a bouquet. Here in Beacon? Not so much.

Yang was about to let out a groan when the bell rang, and she was met with a woman who had a power stance. Her hair was short and ginger and she definitely looked like she was…different.

"…Nora?" Ren spoke, poking his head out from a bunch of flowers.

The ginger grinned and skipped over to him, all with Yang watching, a raised brow plastered on. She hugged the guy, who was stiff and side-glancing at Yang.

"Ren! I just wanted to pop by and see how you're doing here!" The girl – Nora – had said.

"Thank you, Nora. As you can see, I am doing splendidly, here." Ren replied calmly as the ginger detached herself from him.

"That's great! Now, where's your boss?" She asked, her hands on her hips.

Yang leaned on the counter at this, clearly wanted to see what would happen next. She cleared her throat, getting the couple's attention, smiling at them.

"That's me." Yang spoke, her violet eyes on Nora.

Expectantly, Nora skipped over to Yang, both palms on either side of Yang on the counter. Her eyes looked intimidating but she was smiling warmly…or maybe she was challenging her. This Nora girl was hard to read.

"It is nice to meet you, Ren's boss!" Nora said very loudly, causing for Ren to rush over and remind her to tone it down a little. "Ren is doing a good job."

Yang furrowed her brows, quite amused at the statement. She straightened herself and looked at Nora closely. The girl definitely made that sound like a statement.

"I'm…sorry, are you telling me that he is or are you asking?"

Nora, without a second to hesitate, grabbed Ren by the shoulders and poked his cheek, all whilst staring at Yang.

"Do you see this man?" Yang glanced to Ren, nodding. "He is the embodiment of doing a "good job", ergo I refuse to believe otherwise."

"Nora! I'm only hours in on my first day of the job. You can't go around saying that to everyone!" Ren warned her, apologising quietly to Yang.

Nora just rolled her eyes and looked at Yang, like "men, what can you do with them?". It just confused Yang even more, making her erupt in laughter. Nora was such a weird person that Yang was enjoying this. She liked how the two were near to being opposites but together brought a comedic effect, even though it was unintentional on Ren's part. Yang was definitely going to befriend this Nora chick.

"You're doing good, Ren." Yang said, smiling at Ren, probably for the first time. Those smiles during their interview didn't count.

"See, Ren? I know you better than you know yourself, that's why I'm always right about you!" Nora said, nodding to herself like she was proud.

Yang just shook her head and looked at the calendar, since it was on the countertop. That stimulated her memory, reminding her that she needed to invite Ren to their party, otherwise it wouldn't really be a party for their shop.

"Oh, Ren! Ruby and I are throwing a party for the opening of Summer Roses this Sunday. You wanna come…I mean, you _have_ to come. You're helped with the opening. You're invited too, Nora."

"Oh, it's an honour Ya—"

"WE'D LOVE TO!" Nora interrupted, a fiery passion in her eyes.

Yang could tell she was a party girl just merely from looking at her facial expression. She laughed at the enthusiasm and the look of disbelief from Ren, though it turned into an eye roll, like he was used to her actions.

"Great. I'll give you a call on Sunday to help set up, a little cost for attending." She said, winking at Ren. "However, now we must work. If you are not here for the flowers, you may stay, but only if you don't distract Ren or me."

Nora pouted for a moment then it immediately returned to a grin.

"It's all okay. I've got places to be, people to see." She replied, before quickly whipping out her phone. "Selfie!"

The sound of a captured photo was loudly than expected and Nora was able to get a slip of Yang and Ren in her Dustchat selfie. Nora looked very presentable but the other two were caught with opened mouths and misshaped eyes.

"Awesome! You both look terrible!" The ginger snickered, leaving the shop right away.

Ren apologised 23 times that day, each seemingly sounding guiltier than before.

 **Θ**

When Ruby woke up, it was already 2 in the afternoon. She received a text from Yang about them having an extra guest on their invite list just 16 minutes before waking. Honestly, even if she had enough sleep for the day, Ruby could sleep a little more. It was a shame that she planned on opening a bank account today.

"Ughhhhhh." The red head groaned, getting up from her comfortable black-sheeted bed.

Ruby slowly made her way through the house to get ready, from brushing her teeth to getting changed to drinking coffee and eating toast. At 3:57PM, she left the house, making sure to take her keys so that Ruby didn't have to tell the same embarrassing story as Yang.

In Beacon, there were two banks, Ironwood Banking and SDC Banking. Ruby was going to apply for Ironwood but when she looked online about the rewards and benefits of applying with SDC, she couldn't resist. She could potentially get _discounts_ for flying to Atlas. The red head had booked for an appointment to open her account at 4:15 – luckily she woke up just in time. She made it in the building 5 minutes before her appointment. The bank wasn't far since it was in town. Ruby made it to the desk, telling the man behind the glass window her name and appointment. Then, Ruby had to sit and wait before one of the bankers called her name.

Interviews was already hard for Ruby to do so this was going to be very nerve-wracking. It also reminded her that she had to tell Yang about what happened on Monday. She twiddled her fingers around each other, waiting patiently and convincing herself not to leg-it. The thoughts of anxiety swam around her head, though it was eventually drowned out by a loud voice.

"Do not touch me!" It sounded like a boy who hadn't gone through puberty…basically a girl.

Ruby perked up and glanced around to find a young man—no, it was a boy. He wore faded blue and white attire; smart buttoned up shirt and dress pants. There were two very big men in white beside him, making him seem like he was of higher class.

"I'm sorry, sir. I-I was just picking up your scarf for you." A man spoke, who wore a supermarket uniform.

The boy flicked off invisible dust from his shoulder, looking calmly at the man. He was shorter so even if he seemed important, it was a little funny to witness this dynamic.

"You can keep it. I'd rather give my clothing to the needy than keep it for my own use." The boy said.

Somehow, the way he toned it and worded it, had ticked Ruby off. He was definitely undermining working-class people, and no one was calling him out for it. Just because he looked like he had money, didn't mean he could treat people like that.

So, before she knew it, Ruby had placed herself between the supermarket guy, and the rich snob. Though Ruby knew how much attention increased her anxiety, the rush of adrenaline zipped through her body as she looked down at the boy – he wasn't really tall.

"What is your problem?" Ruby asked, very cross.

The boy, who had white hair, blinked at her, fazed a little by her question.

"What are you talking about?" He answered.

"You _know_ what. You're treating this nice man like a commoner, like you're a kid going through their medieval phase." Ruby barked back.

Then, the boy narrowed his eyes at her statement, clearly not amused.

"Clearly, you're the less educated one here if you don't know who you're talking to…ah, _commoner_." The white-haired guy snarled.

Ruby clenched her fists, about ready to punch this guy in his pretty, rich, pale face. However, she was only taught to fight for self-defence. It would be a waste to use it on scum like him.

"Mister Schnee, would you like me to escort this lady out of the bank?" One of the white-suited men asked.

The boy smirked, crossing his arms and nodding. "Yes, please."

Then immediately, Ruby was kicked out, like she was the reason for the wrong. It baffled her why no one was standing up to a jerk like him, but then again, history taught her the fearsome power of money and class.

"…I guess we are still stuck in the past." Ruby muttered. "Ah…I'm an idiotic peasant."

She frowned. Stupid rich people.

 **Θ**

When Ruby came home, Yang was already on the couch, which didn't surprise her. The red head took a lot of time walking around town to blow off steam. That short white-haired boy was still lurking at the top of her head, making fun of her and her income. She just wanted to—

"Hot chocolate?" Yang asked.

When Ruby blinked, she found her sister already by the kitchen, getting out the powder. She must have been thinking too hard if she didn't notice the blonde moving. Nonetheless, she nodded, taking a seat on a stool, sighing to herself.

"Geez, sis. Rough day?" Yang asked, leaning on the countertop.

Ruby nodded again.

"There was this prick at the bank, Yang. I wanted to punch him in the face." Ruby groaned, resting her forehead on the cold marble surface.

Yang frowned and moved over to the cupboard, taking out a container of cookies, which she called the "Ruby De-stressor" (it was literally on the container). She placed it by Ruby's head, making the red head sit up, then grabbing a cloth, began pretending to clean the counter.

"Tell me about it, darlin'". Yang said, doing her best bartender impression.

That made the little sister smile, happy that her sister was a good listener. She was just happy that her sister even listened to her to begin with.

"Well," Ruby began, taking a bite of a chocolate chip cookie. "this white-haired boy was being disrespectful to a man at the bank. He was all condescending and judging the guy just because of their different class. It really frustrated me, Yang…I couldn't just listen in—I had to jump in and stop this. Turns out this boy was really big and got his bodyguard to kick me out."

Yang nodded then clenched her fists with narrowed eyes. She looked very serious, just like the time when she found out Ruby was being bullied at school. The events turned out really bad for the bully and Yang, with them both being suspended for a month.

"What's the kid's name?" Yang asked calmly, a tone that she used when she was truly pissed off.

Ruby shrugged, trying to remember if his name was mentioned. "I don't know…I think I heard a guy say "Mister Schnee" at the bank…"

Yang hummed and glanced over at the TV, trying to think deeply like she heard of that name before. Ruby just waited patiently for her sister to speak, only to become even more curious when the blonde's eyes widened.

"…Yang?"

"Oh…It's nothing, sis. Everything will all wash over soon."

Ruby found it doubtful. She saw the fire in Yang's eyes, heat of vengeance. Nothing other than revenge could burn that out, nothing.

Instead of digging deeper, Ruby let it go since there was no way Yang could get to that snob, especially since he had bodyguards. No martial arts could help Yang get through stacks full of Lien.

"Okay, well I might as well go to sleep now. I'm working with Ren tomorrow." Ruby said.

Her sister nodded, then she reminded her to invite her friend, Blake, to which Ruby replied that she already did. That was an obvious lie. She was going to do it when she got to her room.

She forgot to do it.

 **Θ**

When Ruby left to go to sleep, Yang immediately whipped out her phone. She walked over to the couch, typing "Schnee" into Scroll. Immediately there were articles and pages about the Schnee company and important people, one of which Yang recognised was on the telly the other day: Jacques Schnee.

"Jacques Schnee is the CEO of world's largest bank, SDC Banking (that was probably the bank Ruby got kicked out of). Previously caught in a scandalous affair, Jacques, at the age of 27, had daughter Winter Schnee. He soon married Winter's mother after breaking up with his girlfriend. Weiss Schnee was born 5 years after the marriage, who is said to be the heir of the company…" Yang paused at this, finding this quite shocking.

She didn't think that Weiss was this important, especially seeing as the way she acted so friendly with her. It was a little scary. Then, the blonde wondered if she was managing okay, recalling the way she spoke about her father.

"…Jacques last and only son, Whitley, was born 7 years after Weiss—" Yang stopped and tapped on Whitley's name, which led her to another tab with his image and profile.

Yang bit her lip, looking over it before she closed the tab and went onto her messages app to text Weiss.

 **Yang:** hey Weiss I need 2 talk w/ u

While waiting, Yang went through Faunstagram, liking all of Pyrrha's posts, because that's what friends did. She even bantered with Coco on one of the beret-wearing girl's photos, whilst waiting.

 **Ice Queen:** Of course, however I will not be back until Sunday night. Do you mind?

 **Yang:** Nah its chill take as long as u liek b

 **Ice Queen:** Thank you.

She was going to drop the phone and go do something else, but Yang remembered that she had to invite Weiss to the party on Sunday.

 **Yang:** 4got 2 tell u but I hve a party this Sunday and ur invited so u better cme

This time she didn't wait for Weiss' reply because that girl better come or she was going to drag her to the party herself.

* * *

 **Hello, hello lovely people!**  
 **Caff is back at it again with the chapter updates! I've been trying to write every day so that I won't take longer than a week to update, but I keep going a day over.**  
 **I don't want to rush my plot and I'm not, I swear! Slow burn is the BEST (insert sarcasm). I also hate having to wait and anticipate what's happening next.**  
 **So, for now, look forward to some more slow burn and some more one week worth of waiting!**

 **Also, I've added in stuff that might confuse you guys, unless you caught on. Here's the keys:**  
 **Faunstagram = Instagram**  
 **RemBook = Facebook**  
 **Dustchat = Snapchat**  
 **Scroll = Google**  
 **My Little Grimm = My Little Pony**

 **Am I funny yet? No? Okay. T-T**


	4. A Party for Kings

**Where the Flowers Lay**

* * *

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (assumed), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter Five: A Party for Kings

On Monday morning, Ruby set off early to pick up Jaune and Ren from their homes. Yang had already come back from her morning jog when the red head had left, and she began her work immediately. Today was going to be a very productive and eventful day. The two were going to host a party for their new friends and shop, with the help of their new friends and employees.

Yang had received a text from Coco around 11AM about her arriving soon and by then, the blonde had already cleaned and vacuumed the apartment. Her guest came with a gift package full of coffee powder and cookies, a beret and pair of shades on her.

"Velv's coming a little later. She had to attend a photoshoot thing of some random chick." Coco said, dropping the basket down on the kitchen counter as she took long strides in.

"That's fine. We need to buy food, though." Yang replied, showing the brunette a shopping list.

Her friend's brown eyes settled on the white piece of paper, taking a moment to read the list before humming in agreement.

"We're not getting the drinks?" Coco asked, stretching like it was going to be a long journey (even though the supermarket was just downstairs).

Yang shook her head, replaying her discussion with Ruby before she left for the boys.

"Nah. Rubes wanted to buy it. This is her first time buying it legally." The blonde said, peaking her friend's interest.

"Wait—legally? Did she use a fake ID? I didn't know the Red had that dangerous side to her." Coco seemed more impressed than anything, confusing Yang a little until she remembered her choice of words.

"Nonononono! Sorry, my bad. In Patch, everyone knew each other so Ruby and I sometimes went on errands to buy things. Ruby went to buy wine for my uncle a couple of times and because the shopkeeper knew us, he didn't ask for ID." She cleared up, nodding at herself.

Coco sighed in relief at this, shaking her head and opening the door. "Well, that was one hell of a thrill ride. For a minute there, I thought she was some kind of criminal disguised as a nice and adorable kid…like a con-artist!"

Yang smiled, finding the idea of Ruby being something other than good very silly. That girl couldn't even lie to save her own life. Anyone could just tell by looking at her that Ruby Rose was not made to do— _attempt_ criminal activity.

"Anyway, let's get outta here. If we take too long, the others will be back before us and that would be very embarrassing. After all, we have the easiest job." Yang said, closing the door behind them.

 **Θ**

"How…did you _forget_ to bring your ID, Ruby?" Jaune asked, looking at the short girl with disbelief.

"Actually, none of us brought our IDs so she can't take all the blame." Ren pointed out.

The three of them were in Ruby's car, Crescent Rose, arguing in the parking lot of a 7 Eleven that they passed from leaving the blonde boy's flat. They were all kicked out of the store when they went up to the till to purchase a few bottles of alcohol without the presentation of an ID.

Sure, they could go back to Jaune's place for his ID, but it really upset the red head that she failed to do her first legal alcohol run. Indeed, who would forget to bring their ID, especially when they were going to solely buy alcohol (with a few mixer drinks).

"I'm sorry, guys…" Ruby murmured. "Let's just go back to my place and move the furniture around. I'll get the drinks when we're there."

Jaune and Ren looked at her, both now with sympathetic expressions after having a glimpse of her disappointment.

"Yeah, that's fine. Just, for future reference, Ruby, try not to forget?" Jaune replied, a weak chuckle coming out to raise the mood.

Ren then opened his mouth to input his words of motivation, except they were interrupted by a knocking on the window. Ruby turned her gaze to the knocker, who seemed to have very dark grey hair. The man had his hood up, body covered in sweats. He looked really, really dangerous and Ruby just wanted to turn on the ignition and drive off.

The man pointed downwards, illustrating that he wanted the window to go down, and Ruby did as told. Just…turned it down so that there was going an inch of air coming into the car.

"May we help you?" Jaune spoke, his voice shaky but his chest puffing.

The grey-haired man smirked, leaning on the car and tilting his head down so that his lips were inches apart from the gap. "I saw you lot leaving the store without your drinks. Lemme guess…no ID?"

The three looked at each other before Ruby nodded, earning a full-blown grin from the stranger.

"My friend, I can help you out." He said, now showing a backpack behind him and moving a little just so that Ruby could make out the sound of bottles clinking.

Ruby looked back at her employees, who are basically her friends outside of work. They both looked at her, Ren shaking his head and Jaune shrugging in response. All signs and social opinions led her to believing that making a deal with this shady character was bad. She was definitely not supposed to talking to strangers anyway.

But she would be damned to let her first alcohol errand to fail!

"How much is it for some rum and vodka?" Ruby asked, earning a facepalm and sigh from her friends.

The man set his price and Ruby basically bought every bottle he supplied, and to be honest, it was cheaper than the store's price. So, being idiotic as she was in that very moment, she asked for the number of her supplier, who called himself "the plug". They bid their goodbyes after the deal, Jaune and Ren not satisfied at all with what had just occurred.

"…Don't tell Yang." Ruby said to them with a serious voice.

Jaune raised his hands in surrender. "I won't!"

"Ruby, you do realise that he's…well, not a _good_ guy, right?" Ren said warily.

"Ren, his bottles were 3 lien cheaper. We're not all made out of money, y'know? I recently just got kicked out of a bank too, so I'm definitely in a money crisis." Ruby replied, which silenced them all until Jaune turned on the radio.

The ride back to the apartment wasn't as nice as before but they all repressed the memories of the shady guy as they climbed the stairs with bottles in their arms. They came back to the apartment, which, a surprise to Ruby, was very clean.

Jaune whistled, unloading the bottles onto the kitchen countertop, Ren right behind him. The two seemed to like Ruby and Yang's apartment. Ruby had that impression when she first viewed the flat too.

The living room was quite big, with an open kitchen next to it and a hallway that lead to Ruby and Yang's room; Yang being the door on the left and Ruby being the one on the right (you could tell by the designs on their doors). The walls were a splash of black and white with wax coated wooden floors. The sofa was centred near the TV they had on a wooden table, which Yang had put together. There was food scattered all over the dining table a few metres behind the sofa.

"Yang, we're back!" Ruby called out.

A bang and a thud later, Yang and Coco came out of her room, yawning and looking tired. They must have fallen asleep.

"Rubes, you came back so early…we only _just_ fell asleep." Yang groaned, rubbing her stomach, not embarrassed she did it in front of others because, well, she was Yang.

"Why did you two sleep in your room?" Ruby asked, suspiciously.

Coco went to sit at the couch, reaching for a glass of water on the coffee table – she probably left it there earlier.

"We were watching videos on the internet—did you know your sister could fall asleep on a _chair_? Amazing." The brunette chuckled, shaking her head.

Yang grinned proudly before walking over to the dining table, moving the snacks around lazily. There were bowls underneath the hills of food and her sister began opening the packages and pouring them into the bowls.

"So, boys. Would you do me a solid and push the couch to the wall by the windows? Also, the coffee table put next to the TV. Rubes, can you grab the bean bags in our rooms? We'll need them since we're gonna have a ton of guests." Yang ordered them as she let the packages slowly fall to the floor.

They did as they were told, the boys already on the move like it was a job that they were paid to do. When Ruby came back with two bean bags from her room, Coco was by Yang's side with a recycling bag and all the rubbish inside it. Everything was almost out of its bag and the table was looking less of a junkyard.

"So, how many people are actually coming?" Ruby asked, setting the bean bags down in front of the couch.

"Oh, there might be a dozen of us—can you grab the drinks, Ruby?" Yang said busily.

She was finally done, and Coco took the bag and dragged it over to the kitchen since it wasn't full. Ruby brought over two bottles and Coco took the rest to her sister. After that, Ruby went to the bedrooms to retrieve more bean bags, whilst Coco went to the convenience store to buy plastic cups and soft drinks – Ruby forgot to get those due to…technical reasons?

Overall, it took the group 2 hours to finally set up the gathering, putting decorations up on the walls and sticking some on their door. There were still a few hours before people were going to come so they ended up falling asleep on the couch and bean bags.

 **Θ**

A few minutes before 6, the doorbell rang, chiming a few times before it stopped. Yang was already up, having slept a bit before, though she couldn't say the same for the 3 kids passed out on the bean bags.

Coco was in the loo, so Yang had gone to the door and opened it. She was welcomed with a brunette and a red head, both looking stunning, and both grinned from top to bottom.

"Velvet, Pyrrha! What are you two doing together?" Yang asked, wondering how they knew each other.

The two entered the house before they could answer the question, propping their coats on the racks and settling their bags down in a corner.

"We met at a photoshoot, today." Pyrrha simply said.

"Yep! Who knew I'd be at a shoot that Pyrrha was modelling at! It was such a great experience—Pyrrha's a pro at modelling!" Velvet said, smiling wide.

Yang raised a brow, looking to Pyrrha for a brief moment then back to Velvet. She didn't really understand what Velvet was talking about. The girl made it sound like it was a class that she attended, and Yang was a countryside-girl. She had no idea the importance of photography, and Velvet didn't make it sound any less confusing the last time they hung out.

"That sounded great! Well, you two can take a seat on the couch. Coco will be with you in a moment." Yang said, jabbing a thumb behind her in the direction of where her and Coco were on earlier. "Don't mind the dead bodies over there. They'll be up in a bit."

Pyrrha and Velvet nodded, making their way over to said couch.

"So, are we early?" Velvet asked, carefully not trying to sound too loud.

"I think so. The others shouldn't be too far behind. Do you want a drink now, though?" Yang replied, trying to be a good host.

She looked over to Pyrrha, who was staring at Jaune with a peculiar expression, like he was an alien. It was actually quite amusing and Yang would have poked fun at her for it but she was too busy trying to be a good person.

"I'll just have a glass of water." Velvet said and it made the blonde girl pause.

Yang was not very much familiar or used to Velvet's accent so she didn't know what the girl was trying to say. It was either a drink that was actually real, or that it was a word she pronounced differently.

"I-I'm sorry?" Yang stuttered.

"She means, she wants a cup of water, Yang." Coco snickered from the corridor.

Yang rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen, pouring a glass for the girl before she raised her voice to ask Pyrrha. The red head blinked out of her daze and gave her drink, which was a lemonade and Yang thanked the deities in the sky that someone bought some because they knew she didn't drink lemonade and nor did Ruby.

"So, how was the photoshoot, Velv?" Yang heard Coco ask as she walked over to them.

She'd already heard so she tuned out most of the conversation, diverting her attention to her phone. By the time Nora had arrived, the corpses had awoken from their slumber – well, more like Nora woke Ren up, which caused for a chain reaction for the other two. Nora had a really loud voice.

The gathering hit it off from there, everyone beginning to drink. This was mostly because Ruby had gotten a text from Blake that they shouldn't wait for her, which Velvet vouched for since she received a similar text.

A few jokes were cracked and the group was enjoying themselves, lightly drinking alcohol and eating snacks. Ren was dragged by Nora over to Pyrrha where the ginger began a deep conversation. Jaune seemed to have begun talking with Ruby on the couch, pointing something at his phone then at hers. They must have been playing a game. Yang, herself, was busily laughing at Coco's stories. Velvet chimed in a couple of times, denying many of Coco's claims.

By mid-seven, the doorbell rang, to which Yang offered to opening. She wondered if it was going to be Weiss or Blake, and she would be delighted with either. However, Yang was definitely not ready for it.

"Hey, welcome Bla…ke." Yang said, coming to a slow stop upon seeing Blake in a black animated t-shirt with some bracelets on her wrists.

The girl had a smile plastered on her face, a waiting for permission to enter. There was a hoodie tied around her waist and a phone in her hand. She looked quite the nerd for wearing a cartoon t-shirt but damn, it was hot.

"Hi…Can I come in?" Blake asked, now seeming a little nervous, rubbing her arm as she looked anywhere but Yang's eyes.

The blonde blinked and stood to the side, mentally slapping herself for not doing it in the first place.

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, come in!" Yang said enthusiastically. "I'll take your uh…hoodie for you?"

Blake smiled a little more, seeming to enjoy Yang's chivalry. She gave her the hoodie, which she unwrapped from her body, then scanned the room. The black-haired beauty hummed before turning back to Yang.

"You really made this apartment look homey." Blake said, like she was reminiscing the good ol days.

"Uh…Yeah. It looked a bit too dead when we were viewing it." Yang replied, baffled by the way Blake worded her sentence.

The girl raised a brow, feigning a hurt expression. "My interior designing wasn't _that_ bad, was it?"

Okay, now Yang was confused. First, she didn't know Blake interior designed, and second, how did the girl know what it looked like before? …Unless she also viewed the house or gave it away.

"Did you use to live here?" Yang asked, wanting to confirm.

"Oh, yeah. With my parents but I moved out a few months ago. Was it really that bad of a design, though? My parents said it was fine…" Blake wondered.

Then, Ruby came up, waving then hugging Blake.

"Hey! You made it!" The red head practically screamed.

Blake chuckled at this, then the two caught up like friends did. Yang was about to drift away at this but a conversation perked her interest.

"Was the interior design for this apartment before you guys bought it, really that bad?" Blake asked Ruby.

Ruby quickly denied it like she understood what Blake was trying to say. Yang caught the gist of it. Blake used to live here in this apartment and then she made it look nice and gave it back to the owners, that kind of thing, right?

"We bought it _because_ you made the apartment look nice. We even told your parents that it was lovely! Right, Yang?" Ruby said, looking to her sister to agree.

There was a silent pause between them as Yang tried to compute everything. What was her sister saying and what the heck was going on? This usually didn't happen to her. Yang may seem stupid but she was more alert than a stereotypical blonde, however when it came to Blake, she was really baffled. Like right that instant.

"…I'm sorry, what?" Yang confessed, feeling a little bummed out that she had no clue what her sister was trying to say.

Then she saw the realisation hit the younger girl; her mouth dropping open and her fingers trying to pick it back up.

"Oh my gosh…I didn't tell you…" Ruby murmured, causing for Yang and Blake to blink at each other.

"Tell me what?" Yang asked.

"Well," Ruby began, directing her hand to Blake, like it was an introduction. "Blake's parents are Kali and Ghira Belladonna…the landlords of this apartment complex."

It took Yang a long time to understand the situation and fill in the dots. She still couldn't believe that it was this Blake that was close friends with Velvet and Coco, and that it was this Blake that was Kali's daughter. It just couldn't make sense how unconventionally coincidental this was. Though, she did understand why she was so attracted to Blake.

"So…your parents own this place?" Yang repeated for at least the twelfth time.

Blake smiled and nodded. They were now seated on the bean bags, drinking Corona and clinking their drinks together, ready to chug for a few seconds. Blake wanted to catch up on being as tipsy as everyone else, and Yang just wanted more to drink and time to talk to her.

"Yeah. For probably 10 years now, I don't really remember." Blake replied.

Yang hummed and gazed at her scraping her teeth against the beer. She must have been in thought, since she was looking down at the floor with dazed eyes. It was quite adorable.

"Well, this means we have to get super close with you for, y'know, family and friends discounts." Yang winked, earning a giggle out of the black-haired girl.

"Please. My mum talks about you two quite a bit and I'm pretty sure she's _already_ thinking about doing just that." Blake said, rolling her eyes.

The blonde smiled at Blake, genuinely enjoying the time they're spending, and for the first time not thinking about how attractive she looked. It was really nice to just sit, drinking their alcoholic beverages and talking about social affairs.

For the next half an hour, Yang and Blake carried on talking about their childhood, mostly the humorous events. The blonde would usually have to start first and ask the questions, and she didn't mind at all since this was similar to the conversations that she had with Ruby. She was just glad that Blake was even sharing her experiences.

Their interaction that night came to a pause when Nora (the explorer) screamed Yang over to play beer pong. That baffled her since A) they did not have a tennis table, and B) a ping pong ball. She soon found out that Nora and Ruby had used the dining table and paper balls to play. It was a little unhygienic but a party with drinks never was clean so she dove in, though first hearing the rules of this newly crafted way of gaming from Pyrrha.

 **Θ**

Ruby watched Yang and Nora face off from the kitchen with Pyrrha and Jaune to accompany her. The red head was already feeling dizzy from attempting to beat Nora, but it ended up with her losing badly. Pyrrha, along with blonde boy, volunteered to get her water and sober her up before she tipped over to being drunk.

"I can't believe you're on Pumpkin Pete's box." Jaune said out of the blue, now smiling.

Pyrrha and Ruby both looked at him with confusion on their face, wondering why of all times would he have mentioned that. It caused for Jaune to turn red – not that he wasn't _already_ red because he drank a lot more than Ruby.

"S-sorry. I just really like the cereal and I looked at the box this morning and was like, 'hey! It's Ruby's friend'…" Jaune muttered rapidly.

This made Ruby shake her head, making her nauseous, and Pyrrha hid a smile to prevent her joy from showing. Jaune was quite the weird one, and that was coming from Ruby, who was Yang's sister.

"That's okay, Jaune. Let's just help Ruby out first." Pyrrha reminded him, causing Jaune to straighten up and nod.

When Ruby had gotten her glass and drank it all, Jaune and Pyrrha stayed with her for a bit in the kitchen before they led her back into the living room, forcing her to sit down by Blake.

Her friend was busily going on her phone, scrolling through it and occasionally texting someone. Sometimes she caught her looking over at the beer pong table when Yang had gotten Nora to drink. Though she immediately went back to her phone once she received a notification.

"Who are you talking to?" Ruby asked, the alcohol finally kicking in. It felt a little weird and she had to say the question again because it sounded wrong.

Blake glanced up at Ruby, raising a brow and clearly noticing her friend's drunken state. She huffed with a smile and put her phone in her back pocket, then stood up. It was apparently 10PM already, which wasn't even late for a party but Blake gave Ruby the impression that the red head needed to be in bed. That was a fact; she had to wake up early tomorrow but drunk Ruby was free-spirited Ruby.

"I wanna stay up." Ruby spoke, frowning a little.

Blake didn't say anything at all. She didn't need to. All she had to do was stand with silence, give a hand and a look of expectancy. Ruby gave in eventually.

The two stumbled through the living room, passed the group of friends towards the corridors and to Ruby's bedroom. Once they had gotten inside, Blake had helped Ruby onto her bed, then she asked where the girl's pyjamas were. She then got it and gave it to Ruby, giving the girl 10 minutes to get changed. Though Ruby took her time, she eventually got into her red pjs, allowing Blake back into the room.

"Alright, Ruby. I'm going to leave the glass of water on your night stand, okay?" Blake said, who had apparently left to get her water in the timespan that she was changing.

"Mhmm. Thanks, Blake." Ruby murmured, reaching for the glass of water.

Her friend smiled, rubbing Ruby's head before she left. The lights were off and all Ruby could hear was the low volume of the music and cheering coming from the living room. Her eye lids became heavier and once the door of her room closed, she sighed and snuggled into her comforter. The last thing the red head heard before drifting off was the sound of the doorbell ringing.

 **Θ**

"Weiss! Welcome!" Yang shouted, clearly looking intoxicated.

In the background, Nora was standing on the table using a red plastic cup as a microphone to sing. Ren was trying to calmly get her down but to no avail. Pyrrha was guiding Jaune to the bathroom to throw up, and Blake was cleaning up vomit with Velvet by the kitchen.

So, by the time Yang's good friend, Weiss, had arrived everyone was not alright.

"…Yang? What on earth?" Weiss asked cautiously, looking around with a little bit of disgust.

The blonde laughed and closed the door behind her, leading the white-haired girl into the living room. She then proceeded to grab Weiss a drink that wasn't opened and sat down beside her.

"Well, you missed all the fun." Yang spoke, seeming to calm down from her high.

Blake came over with Velvet, after they finished – Coco went to put out the trash. They both sat on bean bags, sighing loudly, clearly not happy of their task. Yang sympathetically gave them an apologetic expression and thanked them.

"By the way, this is—"

"Weiss Schnee." Blake finished for Yang, leaning further back and crossing her arms. "We know who she is. We attended the same college."

Yang blinked and grinned between the two. "Really? Was it Beacon?"

The two nodded, though Blake attempted to move further away from them, seeming to be quite uncomfortable. Yang frowned at this, suddenly realising the situation that was occurring at this moment. Although Velvet seemed to be quite neutral in this mood, Blake had gone to glare in the white-haired girl's direction with great hostility, and Weiss had the opposite expression that basically said "come at me bro".

Yang chuckled nervously, trying to lighten up the mood. It was then that she only noticed her sister was missing. All she saw now was Pyrrha making conversation with Coco, Jaune and Ren attempting to get Nora to stop her drunken act and just them on the couch.

"Hey, where's Ruby?" She enquired.

"Don't worry about it. I put her to sleep a few minutes ago." Blake replied.

It got a snort out of Yang, since it sounded like Ruby was a child that Blake was babysitting. That kind of seemed true in the moment and it did kind of change the atmosphere of the group.

"Well, I guess I won't be seeing your sister today." Weiss said, sighing with some disappointment.

Yang would have to organise another day for them to be introduced to each other, though that would definitely be difficult knowing their schedules might clash like the past few days.

They then turned to another conversation, one that Velvet had started about a movie franchise. There was quite a bit of a debate about which movie universe was better, and the others lurking around had chipped in their opinions.

"I'm going to be leaving in a few." Blake announced, quickly sending a text to someone.

At this, Yang frowned and looked at the time, only realising how late it was. It was already past midnight and she was thankful that Ruby was already asleep.

"I guess we'll take our leave too, then." Coco said, looking over at Velvet who nodded.

"Sun has enough room in his car for you two, so he can drop you home." Blake had informed them, which they thanked.

During this time, Pyrrha and Ren had told them that they'd leave first. It was very understandable since they both each had a drunk person around their shoulders. Everyone waved them off, reassured that Ren was sober enough to drive them all home.

It wasn't long before Blake's friend, Sun, had arrived, showing his spiked blonde hair that it looked like he tried really hard to gel down – in vain of course. Velvet and Blake politely bid Yang and Weiss goodbye – which seemed a little shocking on Blake's part – and Coco pat them both on the shoulders before leaving.

"What time do you plan on leaving?" Yang asked, once they had closed the door.

This was about the time where she'd clean up the mess. Yang didn't want Ruby to wake up with a hang over and a responsibility to clean up. That was just mean, since it was also Yang's idea to even _throw_ a party.

"I'll leave after our conversation." Weiss replied, hesitating for a moment before picking up tissue and putting it in the bin.

"You don't have to help me. You didn't really make the mess." Yang said, quite amused at the expressions her friend made at every attempt to pick up rubbish.

The white-haired girl shook her head vehemently, being quite stubborn about it and continuing her actions. Yang was very thankful for the extra pair of hands…and she showed it. Kinda.

"Take your time, Ice Queen. It's not like it's 1AM or anything." Yang spoke, carrying out a mop from the storage room just next to the bathroom.

Weiss huffed and glared, quickening her pace in picking up plastic cups and tissue, with the addition of paper balls. After this, Yang began mopping the floor, beginning at the corridor that connects her and Ruby's rooms.

"You should be _thankful_ that I, Weiss Schnee, am helping you. It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity." Weiss grumbled.

Yang snorted in response and they carried on their work after this. There would be a few light banters and a pun here and there from Yang, but nonetheless, the two made quite a team. Within 2 hours, they were able to make the living room floor clean – it was a little difficult moving the furniture back since Weiss had weak arms and Yang was knackered. Still, it was much more normal.

"I truly am glad you stayed and helped, Weiss." Yang said, once they had sat down on the couch.

There was freshly brewed coffee on the table, two cups for them, and the smell of citrus clashed with the drink. Finally, they were able to relax and take in the silence that had not been there since the party began for them two.

"Aside from all the horrid jokes and, well, _Blake_ , I wanted to apologise for not arriving at an earlier time. It was quite rude of me, especially since it was such a special occasion." Weiss said Blake's name with the addition of an eye roll, obviously not approving of her blatant dislike.

Yang wanted to ask what happened between the two because they could have been good friends. They even had _mutual_ friends. Was it something to do with an argument?

Weiss sighed and looked down, now showing an expression that wasn't correlating with her words just a minute ago. "Don't ask why Blake doesn't like me. At least not until she tells you herself. I don't want to be the cause of your falling out with her."

A brief moment to think, Yang hummed then leaned forward to grab their drinks, giving her friend a cup. There was definitely more to the story than just some argument and shown by Weiss' distress, she wasn't going to plead for more.

"The other day," Yang started, earning Weiss undivided attention. "Ruby went to the bank. To be specific, she went to your family's bank."

Hearing the reference to the said bank, Weiss' face paled and her eyes became calculating, anticipating the disaster that Yang was going to spill out. When the first word rolled out of the blonde's mouth, belonging to Weiss' own brother, her eyes became much wider.

"What did he do?" Weiss said, before Yang could finish her sentence on Ruby's meeting with him.

Running a hand through her blonde locks, Yang took a sip and stared at Weiss dead in the eyes.

"He was discriminating against Ruby. It wasn't just her. She told me that he kinda, low-key, judged everyone because they didn't have as much money as him. _Because_ of him, I don't think that my sister can open up an account there, just because she stood up for someone who he was basically repulsed by." Yang ranted, a bit of anger coming from the sister in her. She didn't like it when Ruby was being mistreated and she wasn't going to quit the job just because the bully was a rich kid.

Weiss bit her lip, taking everything in and wondering how she was going to respond to both Yang and her brother. Yang saw the fury and shame emitting from Weiss, all probably towards Whitley. Yang kind of felt bad for making her feel that way, especially after witnessing the expressions she made upon the conversation about Blake. However, this had to be handled with. There was no way she was going to let this problem with Whitley just wither away.

Weiss took a deep breath, calming herself as she faced Yang. "I can arrange for Ruby to open an account with our company. Whitley, however…I can tell you want him to right his wrong views." This earned a nod. "Any suggestions?"

A smile grew on Yang's face, a million ideas zooming through her brain on how to punish the guy. This was going to be hella humiliating, she was definite it had to be.

It was nearly 4AM when Weiss had decided to take her leave. Their discussion about the issues with Whitley had been solved in a manner that the both was glad to come up with. The only thing left was to plan when to do it, so they arranged a date that would have the most impact and were going to wait until then.

* * *

 **I want to truly apologise to everyone for this late update. I would have updated sooner but I got held up with revising for my exams.**

 **Apparently, it's a "big deal" idk why it's not like I need education to survive...I'm joking but I'm doing fine now so yeah, I'll be updating a bit more frequently.**

 **It's not a promise, I'm not good at those but I'll try to not extend the update to a chapter per two weeks.**

 **Quality-wise on writing...I'm sorry that it's sloppy. Turns out that cramming ideas in the middle of the night is not good, though like my revision method, I won't stop!**

 **So, please drop a fav and maybe a comment.**

 **Stay caffeinated!**


	5. Colours of a Chess Board

**Where the Flowers Lay**

* * *

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (assumed), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter Five: Colours of a Chess Board

One month had passed since the party, and Yang and Ruby were finally able to say that they were comfortable with their new environment. After meeting amazing people and living in such a nice and affordable place, they were glad they were not regretting the move.

On the case with Whitley, Yang and Weiss had met up at Coco's to plan out their approach last week. Apparently on July 31, Whitley was organising a party to raise money for breast cancer. Although it sounded bad, Weiss had scooped out his real intentions of the donations and that to do justice for his crimes, Yang decided to expose his views to a mass of spectators.

Ruby had been able to open up an account, curtesy of Weiss, and had been saving like hell. Yang had taken a peak at her bank statements and she was sad to say that her sister was definitely richer than she was.

"I can't believe that you don't have as much free time anymore." Pyrrha said, cutting up her brunch into tiny pieces before using her fork to place them in her mouth.

Yang rolled her eyes and jabbed at her food, contemplating whether on conforming to the posh etiquette that her friends were displaying or just use her country hands. It made her laugh to even just decide since she was never going to use cutlery when she had two perfectly good and maybe clean hands to help.

"It's not like you two are free on weekends, anyway." Yang replied to Pyrrha's complaint.

Weiss sighed and cleaned her mouth with a napkin. "That's not the issue, Yang. We are worried." She said sincerely. "We only had _Thursdays_ to spend time with you, Yang. _Once_ a _week_ , Miss Xiao Long."

"It hurts to even just _think_ about it." Pyrrha dramatically sniffled, placing a hand over her chest to emphasise the pain.

Someone should have given those two Oscars for being the most dramatic people on Remnant. They complained just because Ruby and Yang decided to open the shop every day, with the weekends as pre-ordered collections. It meant that Yang was basically only free on Wednesdays and Thursday (sometimes Fridays depending on who was monitoring Jaune and Ren that day).

"Oh, _please_. Cut the crap and hurry with your food." Yang said, leaning back.

Weiss and Pyrrha laughed and smiled, with Yang joining in a few short seconds after, enjoying the company of the restaurant and each other. They had decided then, that every Thursday they would have brunch and catch up, since Weiss had international affairs that happened during the beginning of the week, and Pyrrha being contracted to having Mondays and Thursdays off.

After eating, they decided on going to Port Gym since Weiss was enthusiastic on meeting her new gym instructor. A few days ago, Weiss had told Yang that she hired a gym instructor through her agent, Klein. Weiss really wanted to feel even more close to Yang and Pyrrha, and they made sure to poke fun at her for that.

"So, do you know who your gym instructor is?" Yang asked, coming out of her changing room in sportswear.

A second later, Pyrrha was out in hers: red and gold, her signature colours. Weiss took a little longer, walking out slowly in white and blue, something that wasn't different to what she usually wore.

"Well…I technically already _know_ him." Weiss replied, sighing and taking the lead to leave the locker room.

Yang didn't know what she meant but kept silent anyway, looking over at her companion for any signs of a clue to what the white-haired girl was saying. Pyrrha had apparently no idea either, shrugging when they made eye contact.

What was so amazing about the gym was that people could mind their own business or have light conversations whilst working out or when they were breaking. The people here were surprisingly friendlier than what was stereotyped in a city. That was basically how Yang and Pyrrha met in the first place.

They went over to the reception where a middle-aged man stood, his thick moustache hanging proud. Immediately upon seeing Weiss, he took out a sheet and scribbled something down.

"Miss Schnee? Your instructor should be here soon. If you would please wait over by the cushions?" The man said, pointing over to the cushioned seats that leaned against the wall that separated them from the gym equipment.

The seats were not as comfy as they looked but then again, that was probably a good thing. It was like the chair telling them to get off their lazy arses or they'd get butt aches. Smart. It was hella annoying though.

"I'm sorry I'm late!" A familiar voice panted.

Interrupted by the silence, Yang looked up from her phone, finding herself looking at a blonde boy. He looked like he just came back from a sprint and his spiky blonde hair was pushed back, maybe from the wind.

"Ah! Blake's friend!" Yang said, finally remembering where she'd seen the guy.

The said guy, grinned and stood straight, looking at the three girls.

"Sun Wukong." He had said, now his eyes landing solely on Weiss.

A moment's quietness displayed between the two of them had also reminded the blonde girl that, yeah, Sun was Blake's friend and that meant that these two wouldn't get along.

"Tardiness is quite annoying. Don't do it again." Weiss muttered, now standing from her seat.

Sun shrugged and apologised, both acting more professional than anything else. That was how the next hour went, as both took their roles seriously. Weiss put in a lot of effort trying to attempt every task that Sun had put her to. Sun also inputted feedback and criticized her diet being unhealthy.

During this time, Yang and Pyrrha took advantage of their friend's weakness, pointing out her incorrect positions and mimicking it seconds later to burst into laughter that Weiss did not find humorous. They took a short break after that, taking the time to sit down and drink their bottles of water.

"How do you two know each other?" Yang asked, meaning to have for both her and Pyrrha since they had no clue.

Sun and Weiss stared at each other, as if telepathically debating whether to tell the whole truth or lie. A brief second later, two pairs of blue eyes laid on Pyrrha and Yang.

"We went to Beacon together." Sun said, a small smile on his face, remembering something good in their college days.

"Though, we only met after Coco introduced us." Weiss added.

This earned a nod from the blonde boy, a bigger smile growing on his face. He then nudged Weiss, getting an irritated look from her.

"We didn't really like each other, if I'll be honest. We were like, rivals even though we were in the same group." Sun continued.

Weiss carried on the next part. "Neptune, Sun's boyfriend, used to have a crush on me. We were _never_ rivals." She made a face at the thought of Neptune and crush, as if it should have never been said in the same sentence.

"Hey, at least Nep's with me now! Otherwise I'd still be hanging around Blake and her asshole of a boyfriend." Sun replied, snarling at the thought of Blake's boyfriend.

This was news to Yang. She surely knew that a girl that fine wouldn't be walking around alone, but hearing that Sun, the man who picked Blake up from the party, didn't like her boyfriend…Was he bad news?

"Blake has a boyfriend?" Yang asked, looking at the two for confirmation.

Sun hesitated for a moment before sighing, as if letting all the pent-up anger out.

"Listen, I'm only gonna tell you this because you're Coco's bud and she's got good judgement." Sun bit his lip then frowned, settling himself down on a bench. "She's been dating the guy for a while, like, _before_ anyone at Beacon knew her. I love Blake, she's my best friend! But her boyfriend is a _dickhead_. Blake says otherwise but I don't believe that. He's not right for her and I don't want to spill anymore but I just don't think they suit each other."

Weiss chipped in a few too, though never even meeting the guy, he was still really rude to her.

This caused an upset for Yang, now being informed that a man that her sister's friend is dating, was disturbing the minds of her friend and newly bonded friend. She didn't really want to be biased and immediately hate the guy, which she really wanted to, Sun and Weiss didn't tell her the whole truth. There was something more to the story and she knew that if she wanted to find out why Weiss and Blake didn't like each other, she was going to have to ask Blake herself.

"Erm…I think that's enough break for us." Pyrrha piped up.

Alarmed, Yang got up, calling for Sun and Weiss to chipper up. This was their only day a week to spend some chill and quality time with each other. They couldn't waste the time away with a damp mood.

"I swear, if I pull something…" Weiss muttered as she was being pushed on the shoulders by Sun.

Yang and Sun laughed at the same time, knowing that it could have been a joke but being Weiss, there was a possibility that it could happen.

It wasn't a surprise that Weiss pushed herself too hard, giving herself a sprained wrist whilst trying to lift. It was quite funny to see, and Sun was going to get less pay, but no one was able to stop Weiss and her stubbornness.

The day at the gym ended short with them rushing a whining Weiss into a cab. Sun was announced the responsible one to take her home and they departed there. Pyrrha went to visit a friend and Yang was going to check on Coco, see if she could catch Blake there. They later received a selfie that Sun took and put on their group chat. Weiss was in bed with her butler fussing over her, and Sun was in front, showing a peace sign.

 **Θ**

The following week, Wednesday, Ruby had to work her shift with Ren. They had to rotate it awkwardly because the sisters realised that Ren and Jaune were working overtime (they were only contracted 4 hours a day since the business just started up). It was assigned now that Ren and Jaune would only work from 8AM to 12PM, fulfilling their part-time roles.

The perks of being at work with Ren was that he knew what he was doing. Not trying to throw shade at Jaune's horrible florist abilities, but Ren didn't lie about having experience. Ruby was able to relax around Ren, trusting that he could take care of customers whilst she was in the back. If it were Jaune, however… Maybe she _shouldn't_ get onto that.

Though there were cons, like Ren not being as socially interactive. It felt a little weird to be around him because he was older than her, seemed mature and collective, but he addressed her with such politeness. Not even the villagers back at home were that unfamiliar with her. Jaune was basically a kid so it was less awkward, and he knew how to start conversations, granted that the starters were never…appropriate?

Around the mornings, the shop would be busy just like today. Ren had tended to a girl with exotic green hair and dark skin. He seemed fine so Ruby went out to the back to maintenance the flowers that were not buyable yet.

"Hi…Ruby?" Ren said, a little shyly.

Looking up from her watering, Ruby was met with confused and impatient eyes of her co-worker. It raised awareness since he was supposed to still be with the customer, and Ren was usually capable of doing so.

"What's wrong, Ren?" Ruby asked, showing a smile to calm his nerves.

"A customer wants to buy…a rejection flower." Ren replied, seemingly baffled.

It wasn't bad, since flowers for rejection wasn't a normal thing to give or be bought. Ruby placed a hand on Ren's shoulder to assure him that the taller person wasn't in the wrong for not knowing. The littlest things were always easiest to forget.

"Hello, sorry for the long wait, miss." Ruby apologised before getting into it. "May I ask for a little bit of context?"

The woman nodded and told her, explaining that she wanted to reject a man that was persistent in capturing her feelings. It got a little out of hand and she didn't want to associate with him, hence she came to buy a flower that showed a harsh rejection.

"Hmm…" Ruby thought, contemplating on the flowers in the shop. "If you're looking for a rejection flower…Yellow carnations will do."

Upon the suggestion, Ruby walked around the counter and towards the said flower, picking it up and showing it to the greenette.

"Carnations are traditionally given flowers at a funeral, however yellow carnations add just a little…meanness to it. If it's disdain and rejection that you are looking for, yellow carnations will do perfectly."

The woman smiled and carefully took the flower into her hand, nodding as if she was planning to say a speech. After that, Ruby left Ren to ring up the customer for her single purchase. By the time Ren left, the shop became less populated with customers, giving Ruby the chance to sit back and relax.

"Maybe I should read an E-book—"

The ringing of the door sounded just before Ruby could even finish her sentence. Automatically, Ruby stood at her station, giving a natural grinning response to the new customer. By this time of day, the sun was glaring into the store so the red head's vision was slightly impaired.

However, standing by a few daffodils, was a slim and petite woman with long white hair tied in a bun. She looked like she came right out of a Disney princess movie as she glanced over at the flowers.

"…Snow white…" Ruby murmured, though a little too loudly.

It caused for an immediate response from the woman in front of her. A 'Yes' response, causing them to lock eyes, blue on grey. There was silence in the air, and if Ruby's mind was creative enough, tumbleweed rolled onto the counter. From all the attention that this mysterious girl was giving, Ruby was able to make out a faint scar line that horizontally crossed her left eye. She still looked like a princess, post-war.

"Oh! Sorry, don't mind me! I'm just babbling." Ruby laughed to cover up her nerves. "How may I help?"

The white-haired princess took a few to take Ruby in, which was a little anxiety-inducing for the red, before she smiled and crossed her arms in a polite manner.

"All is forgiven. I was just surprised that you knew my name…" There was a pause there between the two, Weiss seemingly to stare a little longer at Ruby until she continued with a cleared throat. "I would like to purchase a bouquet here for my sister."

Ruby nodded, getting her gear back into work as she rounded the counter, approaching, well, Snow White. She was going to call her Snow for short. Snow stiffened as Ruby neared, making the red head frown but keep her distance – she was probably invading personal space?

"What's the occasion?" Ruby asked, looking Snow…well, looking at her blue eyes and the sparkling effect it displayed. It was mesmerizing.

"I just want to give it to her as gratitude for all the years she's put up with me. Thankful and hoping for a good future."

Ruby glanced around at the flowers in the shop, deciding on which seemed to mean which and if they'd suit in a bouquet before finalising on two.

"Well," She began before walking over to violet coloured flowers and plucking three up. "Hydrangeas mean gratitude, and although they look lovely on their own, I think with…" She then headed towards another set of flowers, plucking up three more. "Chrysanthemums will look nice with it, especially these white ones. They mean love full of truth and loyalty."

Snow White nodded and looked at them, smiling at probably the beauty. Ruby was happy about it too, however she felt a little dissatisfied. It was missing _something_.

"Oh!" Ruby erupted, looking back at the spot where her customer first was. "I think daffodils will fit nicely with it too." She concluded, taking three of those. "They mean new beginnings…It may seem bad but—"

"It could be seen as the future being joyous and happy with a new start." Snow had finished, now a wide smile on her face. "Thank you."

Ruby froze for a moment, not sure what to do. The sun was definitely hitting her hard but she couldn't help but feel that it wasn't the sun that was making her head light-headed and hot. Snow looked at her genuinely with gratitude and it just warmed Ruby's heart, making it a lot harder for her to form words.

In the end, she made hand movements to signal them to the counter. After purchasing 9 flowers and having the bouquet sorted, Snow White tipped Ruby, waving her off with a similar red face.

A long hard sigh later and Ruby collapsed on the chair by the counter, fanning herself. She was thankful that it wasn't just her being all weird. If Snow White was red, then it must have been the temperature of the room. It _had_ to be. The sun was beating down on them too.

For the rest of the day, Ruby couldn't stop thinking about Snow White and her appreciative smile. She wondered if they were ever going to meet again, hoping that by chance, they would bump into each other on the street or something. Sure, Snow White was pretty, and her perfume was so damn rich and sweet, but Ruby couldn't help remembering the way she looked at the flowers. She pondered on reasons why Snow White looked at the daffodils like they had a meaning to her. Ruby wanted to know—call it her florist urges or whatever.

Ruby glanced at the time on the wall, huffing when she realised she still had 2 hours left. Luck never travelled with her, Ruby found that out the hard way when she came to Beacon with Uncle Qrow and Yang.

Farewell, Snow White.

 **Θ**

That same day, Yang was fiddling with her phone, looking at settings and trying out widgets. She saw an option for autocorrect, wondering what it did and tempted to press it.

"…What harm will it do?" Yang murmured before switching it on.

After a brief minute of waiting to see if her phone would shut down, nothing happened. Yang wasn't really one for instructions and books and technology and all those words. She struggled for so many years forcing herself to revise when she was in education _and_ read the books about flowers – though she was lucky that Ruby would read aloud to her some of the times.

 **Ice Queen: Hey you have a very NICE employee at your flower shop**

 **Ice Queen: Sorry, typo. *nice**

Yang blinked for a moment, wondering who was running with Ruby today. It was supposed to be Ren…

 **Yang: No worries whip**

For a second, Yang paused, staring at her message. She wasn't sure whether she should laugh or scream because she finally fit the pieces together with the whole autocorrect thing. Her whole sentence was grammar-corrected…ish.

 **Ice Queen: …whip?**

 **Yang: LOL I'm changing your name to whip now my autocorrect did that**

 **Ice Queen: WHAT? NO! DON'T DO THAT!**

 **Yang: Too late whip**

 **Whip: I hate you. Go away.**

 **Yang: Sorry sorry but anyway all my employees are amazing**

 **Yang: I'll properly introvert you to them next time**

 **Whip: …**

 **Whip: Right.**

 **Whip: Don't forget to introduce your sister to me too.**

 **Yang: Ok ok see ya whip**

 **Whip: Shut up!**

Yang snickered and put her phone down, getting up to make herself a snack. Ruby came home half an hour later, seeming exhausted yet not enough to drop dead. That was a good sign.

"How was it today, slugger?" Yang asked.

Ruby grumbled and walked straight to her room. She mumbled something about Snow White, baffling Yang. Then she asked for some drink and that they would watch a movie.

Yang didn't pry, not wanting to get her head bitten off, so she went to the DVD rack and took out some Disney films. She made sure they watched Snow White first because that would probably stop her sister's moody attitude.

"AH!"

Yang jumped at the sound of her sister screaming. She scrambled over to the source and knocked on the bathroom door, worried her sister slipped or something.

"Rubes? What's wrong?" She asked, trying to open the door.

A light chuckle sounded from the other side of the door and a couple of thuds sounded before the door opened to show a little sister shivering in a towel, water dripping down from her hair.

"…I think the hot water is broken?" Ruby asked, not sure how to explain it. "The only thing coming out is cold water."

Yang sighed, looking at the shower cap in the bathroom suspiciously, like it moved on its own accord. She then reassured her sister that everything was fine and left the apartment to talk to their landlords. They should know if it's normal or not.

A knock later and Yang was faced with no other than the landlords' daughter: Blake.

"…May I help you, Yang?" Blake asked with furrowed brows.

She blinked a couple of times, wondering if this was some kind of joke, only to remember that yeah, Blake _was_ their child. Only child in fact.

"Oh! I wanted to talk to your parents about a uh…water issue?" Yang replied.

Blake was an inch shorter than her so when she leaned against the door frame, she had to tilt her head a little higher. Nonetheless, the pose was quite a sight.

"Well, my mum and dad are out right now. I can take a look at it for you." Blake dismissed.

Before Yang could speak, she retreated into her parents' apartment, then coming back out with a utility box. She smiled and closed the door behind her, taking the lead back to the Xiao Long-Rose flat.

"I do know a bit about maintenance." Blake said, once they had arrived inside the living room. "Plumbing was something that I did for a year as "work experience". I got paid by my parents, so I guess it was fine." She giggled at the recollection.

"Yang?" Ruby shouted out, poking her head out of her room. "What did the Bellad—Blake? Hey!"

The little red head waved then jogged out, changed into her casual clothes that she had worn to work. Blake gave her a little hug then they talked a little about today, catching up. It seemed that they hadn't been able to talk in weeks, but then again, that was the same for Yang and her friends. The month was really busy for them, with the shop finally having an official opening time schedule.

"So what's the real problem here?" Blake asked, walking into the bathroom and looking around.

"There's no hot water coming out of the shower cap." Ruby complained, seating herself on the toilet lid.

Blake hummed and inspected before she turned it on, waiting a few before realising that the cold water wasn't going to shift to warmer water. She then settled her box down and opened it, looking for some tools to use.

Ruby took this time to leave and make they all coffee; Yang volunteered to stay and keep Blake – and her imagination – company. The two talked and joked about trivial things like politics and Coco. She found out that Blake didn't really care for their current situation within the economy. Blake wanted to enjoy life with her friends and family.

"Kids?" Yang questioned when Blake had asked if she wanted a family. "I never really thought about children…I guess I wouldn't mind having some, but I'd have to have found the right girl to marry first, y'know?"

For a second, Yang had cursed herself for mentioning her sexuality, worried that it would change Blake's views on her. Damn, she was thinking too much about Blake, even though the girl had a boyfriend.

Blake didn't say a word, settling herself down next to the shower and looking Yang directly in the eyes. She hummed and glanced away, a trace of a smile on her lips.

"The right girl, huh? I'd want to settle down with someone, someday too. The perfect partner." Blake said, her eyes hollowing out.

A shiver shifted through Yang's body, something that didn't feel _right_ about the words that her black-haired acquaintance had spoken. Was there something behind those words? A clue to her relationship with her boyfriend, because Yang realised that she didn't give a single mention of him. Could she have potentially fallen out of love with him?

 **Θ**

"Here's the coffee!" Ruby piped, walking into the bathroom with a tray and three cups of coffee.

Suddenly noticing the tension in the room, Ruby looked at the two, finding Yang staring at Blake in disbelief, and Blake having her gaze averted elsewhere. Something did happen.

"Yang, there's no whip cream left." Ruby said.

The blonde looked over at Ruby, giving her a warm smile and chuckle, telling her that she would buy it tomorrow. During this, Ruby saw in her peripheral, Blake glancing over at Yang sombrely. She turned her head to get a better look at her friend and Ruby just saw for a second, a hint of…yearning? It disappeared before Ruby could even confirm so she just left the thought.

"I hope you're okay with sugar in your coffee." Ruby said.

Blake smiled and took the cup. "Of course. I'm more of a tea person, but every now and then, a bit of coffee can do me wonders."

Postponing the fix didn't take long, and within half an hour, Blake had already found the problem. She called up a plumber, who was going to come in the morning. Ruby and Yang thanked her a lot and Blake even offered for the red head to finish her shower at the Belladonna apartment.

Honestly, a mad woman would have only refused the offer, so she grabbed her pyjamas and followed Blake. The walk wasn't long, but it was a little awkward. Ruby had to strike up a conversation.

"Blake are you dating anyone?" Ruby asked curiously.

Poised, Blake nodded. "Yeah. His name is Adam. I love him very much."

Ruby was sceptical.

"Really? What do you love about him?" She continued.

"…He's a very ambitious and decisive man. I admire it a lot."

Uh huh…right.

"Are you dating anyone, Ruby?" Blake asked as they reached the apartment.

Ruby blushed, the first image to come to mind being Snow White. She shook her head vehemently and walked into the apartment quickly when it opened. Not even giving Blake the time to tease her about her answer, Ruby jumped into the shower, where thoughts of Snow White were finally dissipating.

When Ruby had gotten out of the shower, Blake had already poured her a cup of milk.

"Thanks, Blake." She said, taking it and downing the whole thing. "I hope to meet your boyfriend soon. He sounds nice."

Blake's eye twitched only slightly and nodded, smiling at her, though it didn't reach her eyes.

"He is…yeah. I'll introduce you two someday." Blake replied.

"I'm holding you to that!" Ruby said cheerily, tapping her friend's hand and standing to leave.

"Bye Ruby." Blake waved her off.

* * *

 **Oh my gosh, I always have excuses for not updating every week xD**

 **Honestly though, I was preoccupied with drawing fanart for white rose week~**

 **That's still going on and if you find my posts on Tumblr...thanks for seeing them :)**

 **Also, a comment from earlier chapters by one of you guys had me thinking...I should definitely draw a future/deleted scene for this story. I'm working on doing that.**

 **Ummmmm...I fixed the thing that bothered me the most i.e. Yang's texting style. I really get disturbed when texts don't have grammar but Yang texting like that seemed to...fit?**

 **Ugh I fixed it and now I'm satisfied.**

 **Also, the next chapter is going to be a special...meaning it's going to be longer than 5K :)**

 **Stay caffeinated!**


	6. Happy Birthday, Ruby!

**Where the Flowers Lay**

* * *

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (everyone assumes), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter Six: Happy Birthday, Ruby!

Ruby came home after she finished work, not being able to help but smile. After a few weeks, Snow White popped in again to buy some flowers, and though she wasn't in long, her approach was much warmer.

"What's gotten you in such a good mood, Rubes?" Yang asked when she had passed her red-headed sister in the kitchen.

Ruby sighed and leaned on the kitchen counter, dragging her finger around in a circle on it.

"It's just…I saw Snow White today and she was just so nice to me." Ruby mumbled.

Her blonde sister patted her head in sympathy, showing that she was there for support. The first time Ruby told Yang about Snow White, it was after she had come back from showering at the Belladonna's. Granted, it was a little shocking to hear that her baby sister was interested in a person, Yang was happy, even if she would never see her again.

If anything, it helped lift a bit of the weight that was on Ruby's shoulders.

"I can't believe you're attracted to nice girls." Yang deadpanned, jokingly.

At that, Ruby pulled out a drawer and opened up a bag of plastic spoons, throwing one at her.

"Ow!" Yang muttered, turning to her sister for an explanation.

"You had what was coming to you." Ruby huffed, walking out to change out of her work clothes.

 **Θ**

Two days away from Whitley's event, Yang and Weiss met up at Coco Latte to finalise their plan, but also to enjoy the coffee that the café served.

"Weiss?" Yang repeated for what felt like the twelfth time.

The girl had been dazed for minutes on end, and Yang couldn't understand why. It was a little rude and she felt quite hurt that Weiss' daydream was more important than exposing her dear brother…Okay that may have sounded bad but they both didn't like Whitley, so it's not!

Weiss blinked and blushed of embarrassment. "Oh, sorry! I was just a little…"

"Dazed? Uh huh. I could tell. What's that about?" Yang asked, hoping that if she helped with Weiss' situation, it could mean that they could then focus on hers.

"No, really, it's just nothing." Weiss replied. "When is the coffee coming?"

As if on cue, Coco came towards their table with two cups of coffee on a tray.

"Calm down, Snow White." Coco said, shaking her head and placing the drinks down.

Weiss rolled her eyes and picked up her drink, blowing the liquid inside to cool down the coffee.

"Oh please, Coco. That name just reminds me of my father." She sighed, making Coco back off with a laugh.

Although the topic of Jacques Schnee was still hard on Weiss, occasionally they would joke about him and mock him to lower the upset he brought to her. It was one of the few things Weiss had said that was okay to do when speaking of her father.

However, the mention of Snow White was a cue to what Ruby had spoken about before. She also spoke of a girl that reminded her of Snow White the first time, then Weiss on that same day—Oh…

Yang had to bite her cheeks to contain the urge to speak of the newfound information she had. She was definite that Weiss and Ruby ran into each other that day, though without much proof, she guessed that Ruby had a crush on her white-haired friend.

"Really, Ruby? Ice Queen of the West? Damn, no wonder why you were surprised she was nice…" Yang thought to herself, letting a smile spread on her face.

Weiss made a face at that, a little taken back by the sudden action, and seemingly a little uncomfortable.

"Yang? …About the case with Whitley?" Weiss asked.

Yang blinked a few times before nodded and leaning back, humming and tapping on the surface of the wooden table.

"You have the video, right?" Yang said, to which Weiss nodded at. "Okay. Then, when you attend, you create a little distraction and I'll change the presentation that Whitley prepared for the video."

Weiss nodded at her instruction, mentally noting to herself about it – though Yang might remind her again on the day. "I'll tryto distract him."

Yang smirked. "Don't worry. Anything that comes out of your mouth is distraction enough."

It may have seemed like blunt flirting, but this was Yang and when you got-to-know Yang, she can be pretty mean. So yes, that was definitely an insult, though a light-hearted joke. One that Weiss didn't mind playing along with.

"I'm pretty sure your bosoms would create more of a distraction for dear Whitley." Weiss rolled her eyes.

The two ended up laughing, illustrating their closeness as friends. Yang would consider her a best friend, which was mutual for the white-haired girl – though admitting that directly would be more painful that death itself.

 **Θ**

"Remember the plan?" Yang asked.

Dressed in an elegant white dress, one she used at her prom, Yang stood with a drink in her hand. Blonde locks were surprisingly tamed and plaited against her spine. Situated beside her was none other than her partner in crime, who decided to wear a long and blue dress with light floral decorations on the hems. Weiss' hair was tied in a bun, quite professionally. If Yang were to describe it, it would have been one of those memes of restaurant food on ads and then in real life – Weiss being the ad and Yang on every day apart from today being the reality.

"Yes, yes, Yang. Honestly, you've been repeating it too much. I am pretty sure I can repeat your plan word-for-word." Weiss replied dryly.

Yang, ignoring the comment, nodded then counted down. The two dispersed on one, with Yang disappearing through the crowd of aristocrats and cancer patients. Weiss, on the other hand, turned to the crowd. She scanned the area for Whitley, finding the boy right at the centre with a glass of champagne in hand. Putting on her best fake smile, the older sister walked over to her dearbrother, putting a hand on his arm for show, pretending to have formed a great relationship with him.

"Ah, Weiss. I'm so glad you could make it to my event." Whitley said, all smiles. "Though why are you really here?" He continued through gritted teeth.

Weiss smirked in response, patting his arm, seemingly gentle but there was more force to it than it seemed. "Oh, why I wouldn't miss my baby brother's party for anything."

Whitley narrowed his eyes for a second then sighed and looked away, giving a few of the passing aristocrats a smile and light compliment. Weiss saw Yang's blonde hair in the crowd nearing her destination Anxiety grew onto her, making the white-haired girl hesitate on what to do.

"Whitley!" She said a little too loudly, though it did grab his attention. "Why don't we do that brother-sister dance father taught us?"

A curious brow rose on the younger Schnee.

"The one when we were still children?"

"What other dance could there be, little brother?" Weiss rolled her eyes, as if it were a ridiculous question – even though they had practised several dances together.

She placed her hand on his shoulder and in response, Whitley rested his on her waist, the two clasping their free hands together. On cue, the music changed to suit the tempo of their dance, like the DJ knew what they were doing.

All eyes speculated the siblings as they began their dance, waltzing towards the beat of the music. The rhythm had gotten faster and faster, and with it, so were the steps that Weiss and Whitley took. They were focused and precise, just how the Schnee family had raised them, and it was a spectacular sight. One miscalculated step could have ruined the whole show but with the two constantly being thrown with difficult tasks since their births, it was almost as simple as preschool maths.

Once the music had ended, the Schnee siblings were out of breath. Tired from dancing profusely for 5 minutes. The room erupted into applause from the spectators, many of whom were delighted of how close the Schnee children were, even though they didn't know of the farce front the two had put up.

"Thank you…dear sister." Whitley spoke quietly, not making eye contact as he smiled and waved to the people.

Weiss blinked for a moment in shocked surprise, unsure if she had heard correctly. Schnees were never really humble people and they obviously never thanked those they don't think highly of. To hear this from Whitley…Weiss was a little sorry for what was to happen not, though she wouldn't stop it either.

"Thank you, thank you, everyone." Whitley spoke aloud. The whole room's eyes were on him. "I would like to give gratitude to all those here today who have donated towards this fundraising event and also those cancer patients who are still bravely facing cancer. I cannot express how much I—"

"—Hate the fact that I'm actually doing this."

A voice, very much identical to Whitley's echoed throughout the room. Attention immediately flickered to the big screen above the man himself, with his face plastered on it.

"Why do I have to organise this stupid cancer project? Does father really like to see me suffer so much?" Whitley growled, his face in disgust.

"Turn it off…Turn it off!" Whitley barked to the security, who were struggling to find the remote.

"What's the point in this if they're all going to die anyway?" Whitley huffed, then smirked. "I mean, I might actually see the point in this. We could take 40% of the money for our company and no one would even notice…"

"What are you doing?! Take the plug out! Take it out!" Whitley pushed past the guards and pulled the plug from its socket, ending the video on display. "I want you to search and find whoever's up to this. Now!"

There was a lot of intense silence filling the air. All eyes were gazing at the youngest of the Schnee family, many filled with confusion whilst the minority had flares of hatred growing.

"What the heck was that?" A man cried out, his eyes bulging with anger. "You're a scam?"

After that, an eruption of insults flew towards Whitley. His face paled even further than before, eyes making contact with his sister. He was pleading for her help with those eyes of misery, and with that permission, Weiss strode to the front of the frustrated mob. With the raise of her hand, the mob quieted down, waiting for her speech.

"…I apologise for my brother's…horrible claims. From now on, he will not be in charge of this fundraiser. On the name of the Schnee family, I, Weiss Schnee, will promise not to exploit this event for my own use. All the donations will 100% go towards cancer patients." A few claps began until the whole crowd were cheering, shouting out Weiss' name.

In that time, Whitley was dismissed and taken out of the area. He was immediately sent to a vehicle, away from the site. A search that took almost 5 minutes, Weiss was able to see a mass of blonde in the back. Violet eyes gazed at her, and Weiss could see the smirk on Yang's face before she waved and left.

 **Θ**

"Okay, so…Have you…done it yet?" Yang asked, looking around the table.

Pyrrha and Weiss were both questioning what Yang had just said, deciphering her meaning.

"…Done what? You just texted us to meet you here 10 minutes ago." Pyrrha replied, resting her chin on her hand.

Yang paused.

"But I told you what was happening…right?" She asked, an imaginary sweat drop sliding down her face.

Weiss whipped out her phone, looking Yang dead in the eyes. "This is what you texted:'Meet me at my house now ASAP no questions asked'"

"Oh…right. I should have thought about that…" Yang trailed off before clearing her throat. "Well! You're here now and you should know that it's Ruby's birthday this coming Saturday."

Her two best friends nodded along with every word.

"And it's also Halloween, so we need to prepare…" Yang looked around, as if Ruby was around but she was already being dragged around by Ren, Nora and Jaune. "For her surprise birthday party!"

Weiss and Pyrrha sat quietly, both brainstorming potential ideas for the party, though unlike Yang, they knew very little about Ruby, especially since Weiss has never seen the girl, and Pyrrha had only talked to her every time she hung out with Yang.

"Yang, may I propose an idea?" Weiss said, to which the blonde nodded at. "Why don't you ask for Ruby's friends' opinions?"

Yang sighed and drummed her fingers on the table. Her hesitation is shown when she'd looked away from them. However, after a minute, she turned back to them.

"…All I know is that she talks to Blake, like, a lot." Yang replied.

Weiss tensed a bit at this but Pyrrha hadn't noticed this as she leaned forward and pressed on about it.

"Then we should invite her. She definitely knows more than Weiss and I, and maybe there's something Ruby likes that youdon't know about, Yang."

"You're right." Yang whispered, biting her lips and looking towards Weiss.

Knowing that this was a sign for permission, Weiss sighed and nodded. It's not that Yang had to ask Weiss for everything but being that Blake and her weren't on…good terms, it was Yang's duty to side with her dear friend.

"You're right, Pyrrha." Yang finally said aloud with a smile. "I'll uh…Get in touched with her."

Standing up, Yang grabbed her phone. She was about to leave the room until she remembered the limited time they had, so being more organised than she's ever been, had told Weiss and Pyrrha her plans.

When she left to give Coco a quick call, Weiss and Pyrrha got to work on doing their own jobs, such as the decorations. Yang was very specific with this and told them to get the resources to makedecorations. Ruby had always been a very creative girl and because of that, Yang wanted it to look DIY for the kid. Weiss had gotten ready to leave for the store and Pyrrha quickly got onto the computer.

Yang was able to get in contact with Coco, who said she'd give Blake a call and get her to come over. This meant that Yang now had time though she contemplated on what to do.

"Okay, um…You guys seem set. I'm going to give my dad a call." Yang told them with a thumbs up, right before Weiss left.

For Ruby's 20th birthday, Yang was definitely going to make their old man come over, hopefully bringing Zwei with him since she knew her sister missed the little rascal – not that Yang didn't also miss their corgi.

The phone rung at least 3 times before Taiyang picked up with his usual 'Y'ello, this is Taiyang. What's up?'.

"Hey, dad. It's Yang."

"Yang? A pleasant surprise! How's the city life going?" Tai had asked, a constant thudding in the background which safely assumes that he was chopping some veggies.

Well, with that starter, the conversation between Yang and her father took at least an hour. Yang tried to divert their conversation to the issue at hand, but her father came back with a swing with more heavy questions. In the end, they were able to settle on the reason of the call and Tai's agreement on coming to the party.

Sighing after that hassle, Yang came back into the living room to find the floor in front of the sofas full of decorations from cardboard to strings, all scattered. Weiss was kneeling by the coffee table, all her concentration on cutting around the dotted lines on the coloured paper. Pyrrha was starting off doing something with the laptop and cardboard. She might have been making some big mechanisms, but Yang wasn't sure at that exact moment.

"You both sure look busy." Yang spoke, alarming the two who were too caught up in their own things. "Do you need help?"

Weiss sighed and leaned back, resting her spine against the foot of the sofa. She looked up at Yang, pondering what to say for a moment before stretching. "We definitely need more than your help."

"The question too is that uh…Where are we going to store all these decorations?" Pyrrha chimed in.

Yang jabbed a thumb back into the corridor. "My room. Ruby never goes in there."

"I'm afraid to find out why…" Weiss muttered, though they all could hear, which earned a condescending smile from the blonde.

"But it should be fine. We've got a few days before Ruby's party and I'm hoping Blake will help out. If anything, we could call for Jaune to come back and let Ren and Nora distract the girl." Yang spoke.

With that, they proceeded with their DIY decorations. Yang decided to put some music in the background to lighten up spirits and motivate them, because who wouldn't want to listen to music in general? That was when the doorbell rang, interrupting the blonde whilst she was drawing on a massive cardboard.

Confused, Yang walked to the door, not expecting anymore guests than she already had. It surprised her even more that Blake Belladonna was on the other side of the door with Sun.

"Blake? What are you doing here?" Yang questioned.

Blake blinked for a minute, almost like she forgot her reason. "Coco called and told me to come help with Ruby's party."

Then it all came rushing in and Yang sighed in relief. "You didn't have to come today but thank you." She laughed.

With a perfect brow raised, Blake stared at the blonde in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? A birthday party needs a lotof help."

In a heartbeat, the dark-haired girl and her tall companion brushed past Yang, carrying themselves with poise. Okay, that was a major lie. Her blonde friend ended up tripping on his own two feet, bumping into Blake and ended up with both collapsing on the floorboard.

"Sun! What on Earth…" Blake muttered, standing up and readjusting her cute little black bow above her head.

It was amusing, seeing how disorganised Blake was, which immediately brought up unnecessarily explicit thoughts into her mind. Nope, Yang. Don't think that stuff when she's totally unavailable.

"Sorry, BB." Sun chuckled, composing himself and looking at the other guests in the apartment. "Hey Pyrrha." He smiled, then paused on Weiss, whom he eventually greeted, with Blake right behind him on it.

Yang knew that with both Weiss and Blake in the room, the day would be intense, but she didn't know that it would disrupt progress. Especially when Blake was glaring daggers into Weiss' back. Though she wasn't the only one who was distracted because "snow white" was also preoccupied, writing Blake's name then crossing it all over their material, which was for Ruby's party.

It was going nowhere. Only her, Pyrrha and Sun were doing work. Actual work that included DIYing as should be and not procrastinating and wasting time and materials. Ahem Weiss and Blake.

"Guys, can we focus on Ruby's decorations? They aren't going to magically be done by themselves, y'know?" Yang tried.

Weiss nodded, muttering something under her breath about Blake. The black-haired girl – with apparently really sharp ears – narrowed her eyes at Weiss. She stood up and confronted the girl with scissors pointed at the heiress.

"What did you say to me, Schnee?" Blake growled.

Eyes rolled, Weiss turned around to face Blake, deadpanning. "Oh, something along the lines of being a shitty friend who isn't helping at all."

Well, there was no point in going into detail, but all Yang could process during that was yelling. Screaming, accusing, stomping, a little bit of Adam Taurus and Schnee company here and there. Then, Weiss was out the door.

"What? Weiss, wait!" Yang yelled out to her, running to the door. She hesitated, looking back at Blake.

Making eye contact with both Pyrrha and Sun, who were nodding at her to leave, she took off with her keys and jacket. Everything had gone downhill fast and Yang was scared that if she let Weiss leave today, it would make it really hard for the two to even be in the same room ever again.

Yang didn't even realise that they were all holed up in that apartment for long. Not until she stepped out and saw the night sky and street lights. The whole building was quiet too, aside from the really loud tapping on the floor, which were quickly becoming quieter by the second. In a hurry, Yang ran and jumped down the flights of stairs to catch up to the short white-haired short fuse.

If the blonde hadn't taken long, she would have caught up with Weiss at the bottom of the apartment lot, but as luck had it in for her, Weiss was nowhere in sight when she stepped out. This meant that Yang had to run after her – which she did – and it sure did take her long. Passing many streets, Yang tried following the main road but found it too ridiculous. She should have been much smarter. Weiss obviously didn't take a car today and she probably used her maps app on her phone to find the shortest route home. That basically illustrated that she took back routes.

Immediately after deciding to check the dimly light alleyways, Yang heard muffled voices. Without a second thought, she prepared herself for the worst. Being as silent as she could, she peeked into the alleyway from the side. There were at least 5 men (three of them seemed to be a little too underweight, 1 was just over and the last was very muscular). They seemed to have held someone hostage in their arms. Yang didn't know who or what, well, that was until the person did something to earn a yelp from one of their captives.

"UNHAND ME!" The very familiar voiced raised.

Right now, Yang shouldn't have been rolling her eyes. But she couldn't help it because obviously Weiss' initial action was to keep filthy people from touching her instead of asking for help. She was going to lightly tease the girl about that maybe months later, but right then, she was definitely going to try to beat them up and run with her.

"Hey, punks! You better step away from her if you don't want a beating." Yang shouted out to them, earning the attention of those thugs.

The three scrawny looking thugs weren't paying much attention to Yang and she could tell from the expressions of the other two that they thought nothing of her. Perhaps it was because she was a woman, or that she was shorter than them. Oh well. It'll enlighten them when she has them grovelling beneath her.

"Doll face, I don't think you should be threatening us." The moderately slim built man, with curly hair, spoke as he strolled over to her. He reached out a hand to place on her shoulder. "And if you don't want trouble, I suggest you le—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Yang had grabbed his arm and thrown him over her shoulder, landing on the solid ground with her foot on his body. Normally, the technique shouldn't have KOed the bloke but she had accidentally slammed him head first onto the floor. Oops.

"Don't underestimate me." Was all Yang said before one of the scrawny dudes stuttered an order to attack from the big guy.

Feet and arms in stance, Yang tempted the muscular brawn to attack first. He took the bait and launched, only to find that blonde lady had swiftly dodged and landed a blow on his stomach. She flinched, because yeah she wasn't as strong as the dude and his body was basically a rock, though she hid it well to cover up her weakness. The brute coughed and glared, now more aware of Yang's experience and being cautious.

In a few seconds, Yang went onto offense and the thug received every blow with much more delayed defence. He was too slow and frankly, this was a bit exhilarating to Yang. It reminded her of the dojo back at Patch, where she used to train with her father and other students.

Unfortunately, when she sweeped his feet, the muscled dude gave out. It was fun while it lasted but Yang wasn't going to complain too much. Especially when she still had 3 opponents. As guessed, they were just the brains and extremely weak. Once she knocked the first thug down, one of the other thugs used his companion as a shield, which didn't help them at all. But hey, 2 birds with 1 stone.

"Yang?" Weiss questioned.

At the sound of her name, Yang turned to her distressed friend, who was leaning against a wall with her hands clutched closely to her body. The fire in the blonde's eyes burned out, replaced with softness as she approached the white-haired girl.

"Weiss, are you alright? Dear god, they didn't do anything bad, did they?" Yang asked of concern.

There wasn't much emotion in Weiss, as if she's encountered this before. She just nodded, concluding the discussion of what just happened, because Yang knew that getting things out of Weiss at the moment was most definitely impossible.

So, the two walked. They took the main road with brightly lit street lamps and more pedestrians. It was an unspoken decision for them to head back to Yang's house. The place was nearer and much more convenient.

"Listen, Yang." Weiss voiced when they had reached the door of the apartment complex.

Body and eyes turned to face Weiss, Yang nodded. Ears wide and eyes opened.

"Thank you for…today." The heiress whispered, earning a small smile from the blonde. "And…and I hope that from today on…You could potentially be my uh…bodyguard."

At this, Yang cocked her head to the side, slightly confused with her proposition. "What?"

"I'll pay you by the hour for spending time as my bodyguard out in public. I didn't think I needed one anymore but…Please consider—"

"You don't have to pay me to help you. That's what friends are for, Weiss." Yang replied, a little harsh but with great meaning.

A sigh and a nod later, Weiss stared her close friend in the eye. "I know, but right now, I believe that it would be beneficial to hire you as my bodyguard in public places…and events—Look, I can elaborate more on this later but…please consider it. You can give me an answer after Ruby's party."

Sceptical, Yang just nodded and they both walked into the complex, heading straight for Ruby and Yang's flat.

The minute that Weiss and Yang walked through the doors, all eyes were on them, very expectantly. Sun and Blake were on the couch, their hands on the hot glue guns, whereas Pyrrha was scrolling through the laptop. Yang saw the shift in their eyes when they noticed the dishevelled attire the two wore, and yes, they misunderstood.

"Looks likes some people were busy with other things." Sun snickered before he stopped immediately at Blake's glare.

Yang wanted to argue but Weiss held her arm, as if to not speak of the event that had just occurred, which was within reason to not do so. There was something big happening with Weiss and if they weren't allowed to speak of it, then it must be really bad.

The blonde decided to go grab her and Weiss a glass of water each and when she returned, she found herself staring at the two enemies, who were in fact shaking hands.

"Until Ruby's party." Weiss spoke.

With a nod, Blake also repeated. "Until Ruby's party."

So puzzled, Yang went to look for answers from Pyrrha and Sun, whom both had just clasped their hands together in cheers. Maybe it was a truce between the two? Either way, they sounded like they were going to cooperate for Ruby's party, which was shown when Weiss sat down with Blake and Sun. It was super weird how they could interact so normal, like they were close friends when Yang had only recently discovered how bad they disliked each other.

 **Θ**

For the next couple of days, Weiss and Blake shared laughs like they were seriously best friends and it just creeped out literally every person who knew of their feud. Even though it was somewhat nice, no one knew how to act around it. Yang wanted all the confusion to end, however they were being very productive with the decorations. Ruby's birthday was tomorrow and they had already done all that was needed. Yesterday, Jaune had gone out with Pyrrha to buy snacks and drinks for the party and the helium canister had arrived then as well.

Now all that was left, was to get Ruby out of the house long enough so that they could set everything up.

 **Θ**

"Um…are you sure you're fine with me staying over tonight?" Ruby asked uncertainly.

The red head was standing in the middle of the living room, bag on her back as she looked around, heart filled with anxiety. Nora chuckled as she mixed the powder in her milk (she was drinking some strawberry milkshake). Ren had gone off to bake them cookies, whilst Jaune took the time to turn his sofa into a bed.

"No, it's really fine, Ruby. We're really good friends and honestly, this would be the best birthday gift, right?" He asked, knowing that if Yang heard, she would have been offended.

Nora cheered and stood up, showing her thunder pyjamas to the world. "SLUMBER PARTY!"

It lightened up Ruby's mood. Recently, they had been spending a lot of time together, the 4 of them. When Nora had found out that Ruby's birthday was so soon, she immediately jumped on the idea of doing something for the girl's birthday. Ruby could have protested but she knew that Yang was going to be a little busy to celebrate and the most they would have done was eat dinner together, so she had lots of free time on her hands. That's how the sleepover ended up happening.

Shoving all her things into a desolate corner, Ruby retreated to the sofa once Jaune had set it down. He then informed them that he'd come back with pillows and duvets for the two girls, since Ruby and Nora were going to camp on the sofa, whilst the boys volunteered to sleep on the floor (though it was more like Nora majority voted.)

"So, Ruby." Nora began, a slap of a grin plastered on her face. "What do you want to watch tonight?"

Gleaming, Ruby got up and rushed to her bag to take out a collection pack of Star Wars. Nora, who was clueless to the movie series, had no expression, though Ren had another view. When he walked in with a tray of cookies, he sighed and placed the tray onto the coffee table.

"Star Wars the trilogy…You don't know what you've done." Ren warned her.

It wasn't much of a warning because she was madly in love with Star Wars and just sci-fi in general. The mechanics were all so beautiful and interesting, and now knowing that Jaune was also a mega fan, she was thrilled to share her love. Seriously, Jaune was a mega fan. He squealed the moment he caught sight of the DVDs, throwing the comforters at Nora.

"We are starting from the beginning!" Jaune ordered.

Nora nodded in agreement. "I haven't actually watched this. Been dying to, though!"

All that was left was Ren's comment, who look defeated. Apparently, he couldn't enjoy as much as them because before he even got around to watching it, the series was spoiled for him. Something about his parents ruining the story for him. It was quite endearing since he talked about his parents with adoration most of the time.

"Okay, okay, okay. We can watch Star Wars but," Ren spoke up, looking at his friends. "We have to do a traditional sleepover. So, movie comes last."

Jaune and Nora groaned, but Ruby grinned with excitement, not sure what the customs of a sleepover were. Okay, she had sleepover sneak peaks with Yang, but frankly, she was worried that the two exaggerated it a little toomuch since the two never went to slumber parties.

"Oh please, Yang!" Ruby whined, tugging on her sister's pyjama top.

The taller blonde sighed, then smirked. "Alright, little sis."

She then grabbed a pillow and whacked her small sister in the head with it. Ruby grunted, dropping to her knees before smiling wide and grabbing two pillows. She screamed a warrior's cry and jumped onto her sister, constantly hitting her and laughing maniacally.

Yang laughed, she then grabbed Ruby by the waist, lifting her up and off the floor. "Surrender or face doom!"

Ruby giggled and hit her big sister in the back with one of her pillows. "NEVER!"

"AHHH!" Yang screamed then threw Ruby onto the bed.

She then wrapped Ruby up in the comforter, laughing evilly as Ruby gazed in horror. Then, repetitively, she hit Ruby with a soft pillow on the body and occasionally the face.

"Girls, I brought some cook—Oh my god, YANG!" Taiyang, their father, gaped.

To which, the girls froze and looked at him. There was a moment of silence and look of betrayal in their father's eyes.

"I can't believe you're fighting…WITHOUT ME!" Taiyang said, earning giggles as he stalked over to them with a grin and pillow.

Yeah. Parents weren't supposed to be in on the sleepover.

"So, Ruby, what do you plan on doing?" Nora asked. "You're still pretty young. You could potentially…apply to Beacon?"

She sounded hopeful, and she probably was. Out of the 3, Nora was the only one who wasn't finishing university next year. This was because she had done a gap year before attending Beacon. Jaune had just finished his one year of journalism internship and finishing his course by the summer of next, and Ren had taken on performing arts for 4 years and so was also finishing by next summer. Hence, Nora wanted Ruby to come along so that she'd have a buddy at the college. Only, Ruby was still hesitant.

"I don't know about that, yet. Right now, I'm just thinking about the shop and stuff. Plus, I'll have a lot of catching up to do if I want to go back into education." Ruby sighed, really not looking forward to learning again.

The college students all sighed. They had occasionally pestered her into thinking of a future for herself, which she was very grateful of. It was nice to know that people cared.

"Alright then. How's your love life going?" Jaune asked, his brows wiggling.

It was appropriate for him to do so, mostly since Ruby had talked quite a bit to Jaune about Snow White and her amazingness during their hours at the shop. Though, he could have toned it down and not wiggled his eyebrows. The guy…honestly.

Ruby just sighed and stared down at her socks. "Not much. I haven't seen Snow White in a while, but I guess that's fair. It's not normal for people to come in every week or so just to get flowers."

Ren sympathetically pat his hand on her knee before retrieving his tea from the table. "Beacon is a very big city. If Snow White isn't the one, there's plenty of other suitresses or suitors out there."

Nora nodded in agreement and hugged the shorter red head. "And besides, maybe in actuality, she's a slob? …Or a hoarder."

Ruby giggled and nudged her ginger friend. "Oh shush. Being a hoarder or a slob isn't that bad. I've lived with slobs. Still kinda do…"

That cracked the two employees up because it was one true fact about Yang. Her room was the very definition of slob.

"For a slob, she does clean up nicely, though." Ren pointed out.

"But that's only to hide her one true slobbish potential." Jaune argued.

Those words caught on some giggles from the girls and then they ended up talking about current affairs like, which café shop was better or who could burp the loudest. Nora argued that she could, but majority spoke that Yang's burp had more depth. They didn't even need to prove it. It was proof enough that the blonde even existed.

"Wait, so Jaune. What's going on between you and Pyrrha?" Ruby enquired.

She'd noticed for a while that Jaune and Pyrrha had become more friendly the more Pyrrha and Yang had turned up at the shop. Sometimes she even caught Jaune stared or Pyrrha blushing. It was quite strange.

The blonde boy blinked, whilst the rest had just looked at him for answers. Answers that he probably didn't know how to explain.

"Aha…ha…ha…Well, um…" Jaune began, swallowing the lump in his throat. "She's really, really nice. We occasionally see each other on campus so we just kinda…clicked."

Ren raised a brow. "Clicked as in friendship or clicked as in romance."

Nora whistled, causing for Jaune to blush.

"N-n-no! We're just friends. Pyrrha a mega…athlete. We only talk because we're mutual friends and well…she's always around whenever I have free time in between lectures." Jaune muttered, now unable to speak in the eyes of his peers.

"C-can we go onto the topic of something else?" Jaune asked meekly.

Taking a gander, Ruby leaned back, trying to recollect anything she had been meaning to ask her friends. However, there was only one thing in the back of Ruby's mind: Her sister and Blake.

"Jaune, do you know anything about Blake? Does she…y'know, swing the same team?" Ruby asked, her legs crossed.

The blue-eyed boy contemplated for a moment. He hummed then looked at Ren for reassurance.

"Blake Belladonna…Hmm. We did see her around campus when she had studied, but I only know her through rumours and Weiss." Jaune murmured.

Ren snorted. "Weiss. The girl you crushed on for two years."

Nora stifled a laugh. "Miss Ice Queen."

Jaune glared at them with a red face. "Oh, shut up, you guys." He then sighed and calmed down. "Not particularly sure if Blake likes girls but, I do know that before she graduated, she had a boyfriend. Apparently they were the longest couple in Beacon."

"I'm pretty sure they're still recorded as the longest couple. Not many couples last after 3 years." Nora spoke up.

Ruby frowned. Hearing from her friends and Blake herself, she felt some sympathy for her amazing big sister. She knew how Yang crushed on the mysterious black-haired girl, but as of now, there had been no shed of hope at all. Maybe, Ruby should help her get over Blake.

"Wait, why're you asking, Ruby?" Jaune narrowed his eyes before it clicked. "You have a crush on Blake?" He whispered.

Ruby made a face and shook her head. "No! I like Snow White and Blake is my friend, and that's all there is to it."

Ren rolled his eyes at Jaune's foolery. "Ignore Jaune. He's a slow cognitive thinker. Anyway, is this about Yang and Blake?"

Frozen, Ruby widened her eyes. How did Ren know? Yang wasn't too obvious about her crush on Blake, granted that it wasn't confirmed.

"I've spent a lot of time in Yang's company and trust me, Blake's name pops up more than occasionally." Damn…Ren's one scary perceptive guy.

"A-anyway, don't mention it to anyone. Especially Yang and Blake." Ruby warned them.

Ren rolled his eyes. "I can keep a secret."

Ruby giggled a little before her expression became serious. "I know that, Ren. I'm talking to these two loud mouths over here."

The two then gazed over at Nora and Jaune, both looking confused and hurt, despite knowing how badly trusted they are.

"Hey…We promise we won't say anything!" Jaune squeaked out.

To this, Ruby sighed, hoping to trust his words at least.

After that, they continued their sleepover, playing a bit of truth or dare. It ended badly, where Jaune had picked dare and Nora told him to run to the balcony and dance in just his underwear. The next game was 21 questions, where they all filled in on facts about themselves. Ruby discovered that Jaune was raised with 7 sisters; Nora had been struck by lightning (not sure if she was lying or not); Ren still lived with his parents (which is so sweet).

To end it off, they fell asleep finishing the first Star Wars trilogy. By the time morning came, Ruby woke up to Nora's feet in her face. Apparently, whilst they slept, Nora had moved so she ended up sleeping on the opposite end of the sofa bed. It wasn't like her feet were disturbing, Ruby just didn't expect that the first thing she laid her eyes on in the morning were feet…lightning painted toenails to be exact.

"Oh, good morning, Ruby." Ren called from the kitchen. He wore a crème coloured apron with a spatula in hand. Must have been making breakfast.

The birthday girl groaned and sat up, analysing the room. Jaune was missing from his futon and it seemed like only Nora and her were the sleepy ones. Ren was in the kitchen making pancakes? She could only tell when she peered over at the countertop.

"Oh, Ruby! Morning!" Jaune spoke, coming out of the bathroom. He'd already put on his best attire, wearing a blue smart shirt, which he was folding the collar of. It looked ironed and so did his black jeans, making Ruby wonder why he was dressing up so fancy.

When Ruby as why he was so fancy, Jaune furrowed his brows in confusion, as if believing that she was still half-asleep – which Ruby couldpotentially be.

"Ruby, you asked us yesterday to go out to the fair with you. You practically begged us with your crocodile tears." Jaune teased, walking over to the kitfchen.

Then Ruby just froze in absolute bafflement. She did notcry crocodile tears. She was a mature and grown adult with realtears. At least, she tried to seem so but considering last night, her group of friends probably had different views.

Sigh. Guess I'll go do some stupid crocodile tears in the bathroom and freshen up.

"Cereal or pancakes, Ruby?" Jaune had asked, poking his head out to find her, only to realise that she was already halfway towards the bathroom. "Oh…Do you want pancakes?"

Ruby nodded lazily before making her way down the hall to the bathroom.

 **Θ**

"That does NOT go there!" The short white-haired girl huffed, screaming her ears off to the tall and slender black-haired woman before her.

The pair had woken up first, at 5AM to make their friends breakfast and start the decorating. Granted, the four had started yesterday, when Ruby had decided to sleep at Jaune's, which Yang high-fived the blonde boy for. Yang and Pyrrha woke up an hour after, when they heard the two fuss loudly over which type of bread was better.

White bread is tastier, Blake!

But brown bread is healthier.

It was already 10AM and the two still hadn't gotten over the whole bread ordeal and finding something new to argue about was going to blow Yang's head off. Unfortunately, Sun was going to arrive later in the afternoon, since he was working a shift at the gym. There was no one at the apartment to calm Blake down.

"Well, I'm sorry that I have to do your heavy lifting just because you're short." Blake bit back.

The two were now having a glaring contest, a cue to have the blonde step in and look firmly at their childish behaviours. They were adults now, and they bicker like middle school kids. It was funny and ridiculous, but mostly annoying.

"I thought you two were having a truce?" Yang inquired.

Weiss scoffed as Blake rolled her eyes, both looking at the tall woman like she was an idiot.

"Just because we have a truce, doesn't mean we can't point out each other's flaws." Weiss stated. "Especially flaws that are utterly idiotic."

Blake growled and clenched her fists at this. "Yeah, and I'm allowed to remind daddy's little princess that this isn't her mansion and we're not her royal servants."

Whoa. Yang raised her brows at this. Do not wanna enter this territory.

Then, Pyrrha interrupted, reminding the triplet that they had work and to stop their foolery. Good one, Pyrr.

"Weiss, can you help me with the backdrop?" The red head asked, standing on a chair and trying to multitask holding up the black board and taping it to the wall.

With a sigh, the white-haired girl submitted, walking pridefully over to their companion.

Blake rolled her eyes, going back to hanging up the Halloween-like décor. Yang went over to the black-haired girl, frowning a little upon seeing how frustrated she seemed. She knew inviting Blake was a bad idea, but this was for Ruby. If only she didn't have some emotional attachment to Blake, she wouldn't have felt this guilt in her stomach.

"Hey, Blake. You can take a break if you want. Go out and have some fresh air?" Yang offered, giving her a smile of assurance.

Blake contemplated it for a moment, then shook her head in refusal. She said something about having a responsibility of being Ruby's friend and not wanting to be made fun of by Weiss.

Well. Yang tried.

 **Θ**

"Ruby, where's your rose?" Ren enquired as he fussed with her collar.

Ruby didn't understand why her friends were being so uptight about this whole dressing up thing. After all, they were just going to go out for subs after picking up Ruby's wallet. (Yeah, she forgot it whilst packing for the sleepover, though she was sure it was in her back pocket…)

"Oh shush, Ren. A missing rose isn't going to do any harm." Nora rolled her eyes before giggling and linking her arms through Ruby and Ren's arms. "Let's go in!"

Jaune gave Ruby a smile before using her key to open the door. Inside, it was dark – the curtains were probably drawn and Yang must have not been ho—

"SURPRISE!" A crowd of people screaming.

Ruby's eyes widened when the lights turned on to show her family and friends were there. It made her giddy and she ran in, colliding into her dad and Yang. A small and cute bark sounded by her feet, causing for the red head to drop her hands to crouch and look at her favourite dog.

"Hey Zwei." She said, making kissy faces and picking him up to hug him.

A lot of her peers laughed at her reaction and one by one, they all received a hug from the birthday girl. It was a little weird, Ruby was being honest. Mostly because on Halloween, people would dress up but since it was her birthday, the excuse was enough to dress smartly?

"Okay, so everyone got you gifts, Ruby—which you won't open til' the end, alright?" Yang told her, a little too excited.

Did she have pre-drinks?

"Then what's first?" Ruby whined, now realising that she had presents she couldn't open yet.

Another round of chuckles before Yang shushed them.

"Well, we have to play a game first, Ruby."

At this, Ruby rolled her eyes.

"What, musical chairs?" She asked.

.

.

.

"AH! NO, RUBY, BLAKE SAT ON THE CHAIR BEFORE YOU!" Jaune laughed, pointing to them.

"What?! But I'm the birthday girl!" Ruby complained.

Yang nudged her, a brow raised. "Right, and the birthday girl already has enough presents."

Pouting, Ruby got up from the chair, glaring playfully at her friend, who gave her a sheepish smile.

"Okay," Yang said aloud, giving Blake the prize dramatically with her on one knee. "your prize, winner of the chair of music!"

An uproar of laughter sounded, causing for Ruby to topple over herself and Yang to clutch her stomach on the ground.

Yep, today was a good day.

"Yang is really something, isn't she?" Blake muttered after receiving her prize.

She'd come over to personally wish Ruby happy birthday with a flushed face and furrowed brows. Ruby had to stifle her amusement as she nodded and the two looked at the blonde's eccentric actions.

"I promise you, you'll get used to it." Ruby joked, mostly because she's lived with Yang all her life and the red head still hadn't come to terms with her big sister's overly expressive personality.

Blake let out a chuckle, however. A smile graced her face. "I hope so."

"Oh, Ruby! I want to introduce you to someone!" Yang called out, drawing Ruby's attention.

There were so many people in their small apartment that Ruby had difficulty finding the new person Yang was speaking of. That was until she laid eyes on the girl who was being dragged by Yang.

Ruby didn't know how she hadn'tnoticed her before, but she was glad Yang dragged the girl over. She knew her face lit up, mostly because she could see Blake's little smirk in her peripheral.

"Ruby, meet Weiss. Weiss, meet Ruby." Yang said, though her tone hinted that she knew something the two didn't.

Ruby narrowed her eyes at her sister but it faded as soon as she had contact with Snow White. Being taller than the woman, the red head had to look down (only slightly). Her name was Weiss and dear god that was such a beautiful name! Ruby had to even stop herself from smiling bigger than normal to avoid any teasing. But, she was so happy to have a real name to the face of a woman she'd been thinking of for a while.

"Well, hello, Ruby. Happy birthday." Weiss smiled just slightly, her hand stretched out for a shake.

It took Ruby at least a minute to realise she had to respond instead of just stare.

Immediately she shook their hands. "O-oh! Hello! Thanks, Weiss! I'm Ruby Rose—oh shoot." She cursed, mentally slapping herself for making such an idiotic mistake.

Luckily, Weiss just laughed and nodded, their hands lingering longer than meant to.

"It's nice to finally know you, Ruby. Though, I'm surprised you're Yang's sister." Weiss started, and Ruby was glad she brought that up.

"Hey, it's a shocker that Yang has a friend." She joked. "Owww."

Yang huffed and crossed her arms, shaking her head after giving her little sister a bruise on her arm.

"Anyway, happy birthday once again, little sis." Yang said, leaning down and kissing her cheek.

After starting that, it ended up with everyone getting a turn to give Ruby birthday kisses. Obviously, her dad was next, then Zwei. Pushing past everyone, Nora gave her one next with Ren in tow. Jaune didn't really give a kiss, they just hugged with cheeks pressed against each other. It was very much less awkward (not really). Then came Blake, who's kiss was probably the fastest, somewhat seeming afraid she was going to get caught.

Ruby couldn't count how many people kissed her cheeks. It was very much numb since for some reason everyone wanted to poke a hole through them. She lost count and it was that mistake that led to the most surprising encounter.

"Thanks, gu—"

The moment she turned her head, Ruby's eyes were a mere few inches from Weiss'. Their lips had accidentally brushed against each other. It made Ruby's face heat up and she didn't know what to think except quickly step away.

So many things rushed through her head, unsure and wavering feelings of warmth and just, Weiss. Why did Weiss lean in to kiss her? They weren't technically friends. She hadn't expected it at all! But it really felt nice. She was even tempted to lean in for another kiss but no, that kiss was definitely not meant to happen.

However, Weiss' facial expressions were so open in that moment. Her face reflected the same amount of red that Ruby's did and she knew that the white-haired girl felt something. The problem was, how where they going to go from there and if those feelings were good…or bad.

.

.

.

"Whoa…"

And suddenly, Ruby was aware that they weren't the only ones in the room.

* * *

 **The long-awaited 6th chapter!**

 **I promised a mega big chapter and I have delivered! I'm just really sorry it took so long.**

 **Sometimes I hate writer's block and other times, I hate that I turned 18. Y'know, when you turn 18, you do big kid stuff like partying and clubbing...And drinking.**

 **Hopefully I have more time to write and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

 **Like always, stay caffeinated!**


	7. A Christmas Full of Exceptions

**Where the Flowers Lay**

* * *

Main Ships: _Bumbleby, Whiterose, Arkos_

Sub Ships: _Renora, Crosshares, Seamonkeys,_

Ships for Plot: _Nuts & Dolts, Freezerburn (everyone assumes), Tauradonna_

Summary: Summer Roses was somewhat a memorable place for the two sisters. It was a place of grief yet also gave endearing emotions for Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Although flowers may not have been particularly their speciality as younglings, the symbol of the place was left behind for them by their mother and who were they to defy such an amazing person? The only trouble was branching out the shop to Beacon, a city that was by far more terrifying than the farm animals back at Patch.

* * *

Chapter Seven: A Christmas Full of Exceptions

Yang found herself in quite a predicament. Don't get her wrong, Ruby and Weiss being together wasn't necessarily a bad idea to her. She's had a lot of time thinking about the two when she discovered they harboured some feelings for each other. It was just that…well, they were _too_ slow to talk.

Right after the infamous accidental kiss, Weiss immediately disappeared to god knew where and Ruby just froze when she seated herself on the couch. Sure, there was a lot of teasing and congrats to the red-head but now, it's been over a month since the two last spoke to each other.

Yang wanted to badly help them out, but she couldn't intervene. It was the first time Ruby's ever had her attention on someone, and she wanted her little sister to experience it independently. It's how you grow, right?

"If I were you, I would have set something up already. I mean, you work so closely with Ice Queen and you're Ruby's _sister_. So much opportunity." Coco said, dragging her out of her deep thoughts.

The blonde sighed and rubbed the bridge between her eyes, feeling the stress creep in. Yeah, it had been one month since being Weiss' bodyguard as well. Weirdly enough, the most work she did was _paper_ work. She just got paid to literally have fun with her friend, which was a plus, but it did mean she had to cut her hours out of the flower shop.

At first, Ruby was hesitant, not because she didn't support the additional job, more that she didn't think she had the confidence to take full responsibility of Summer Roses whenever filling in Yang's shifts. She was basically managing 70% of the time and Yang wanted her little sister to know that she was capable of more than she realised.

"Listen, Coco. Helping out my baby sister is something I want to do really badly, but…" A little flashback stirred within Yang. Her past experience with lovers, all the confusion, the teasing, and the satisfaction. "I can't force them to do something they may not be ready for. Ruby's finally coming out of her shell and I want her to know what she wants on her own. It's more fulfilling that way."

The brunette sat opposite her friend in silence, her shades slipping down her nose as she raised her brows. "You're growing up so much, Yang…"

Yang scoffed and kicked the café owner's shin under the table, earning a really loud groan and complaint from the woman.

"Stop acting like you're my mum, douche." Coco snickered in response.

"Anyway, how was the gym with Pyrrha?"

Oh yeah, Yang had just returned from her daily workout with Pyrrha, who left for an interview. Ruby and Ren were manning the flower shop as they spoke, and Yang had no desire nor energy to walk across the street to greet her confused little sister.

"Same as usual—except I _think_ Pyrrha has a thing for Jaune." Yang speculated.

Since the party, whenever Pyrrha and Yang hung out, she'd see the red head sneak peaks at the clumsy boy in the shop, or she'd slyly ask about him through work association.

"How do you know?" Coco asked, leaning back in her chair, looking like she was about to fall off.

Yang let out a laugh, as if it were stupid to even ask. "Her face turns the same colour as her hair whenever I bring him up in our conversation. Actually, she blushes every time _anyone_ talks about him."

Another snicker left her brunette friend, which on cue, her girlfriend entered and sat down.

"Are we talking about Pyrrha and her potential beau?" Velvet asked, and with silence as a question, she rolled her eyes and spoke. "Of course, I'd know. I work with her on occasions and a little _blondie_ sometimes pops in to intern."

"Honestly, I'm glad she's finally catching feelings for someone. Throughout the whole of college, she only focused on her studies." Velvet then stammered. "A-at least that's what I've heard…and seen. We weren't…really friends."

Coco rolled her eyes and held her girlfriend's hand in comfort. There were still bits and pieces from their time at college that Yang didn't know. It kind of made her upset she didn't attend Beacon, but she didn't regret. She wasn't one for regretting.

"College was quite the tough time for you guys, huh?" Yang asked.

"The only difficulty was Blake and Weiss. Pyrrha just wasn't around because everyone was too scared to be around her." Coco responded, rubbing her thumb over Velvet's palm subconsciously. "She shone too bright and it was the status that stopped people from approaching her."

"What changed, then?" Yang dared ask.

A pause then a smile later, Coco leaned on the table. "You did, Xiao-Long. You and little Rose."

 **Θ**

Another month passed by and that meant that Christmas was coming. The sisters were counting down the days, eating their advent chocolates as they did. They were excited, getting ready to go back home to spend the merry holiday with their father and dog, however it wasn't the only thing that pumped them up.

During November, the two had decided to hold a Christmas party before they left. It would be held on the 20thand they'd bring all their friends. All the guests had confirmed their presence and Ren even volunteered to cook the Christmas dinner. It was most definitely going to be a big party, even bigger than their first party. However, that wasn't the reason why Ruby was pumped up.

It had been exactly one month and 16 days since she'd last seen Weiss. Ruby had wanted so badly to talk to Weiss, but when she finally had the balls, Yang had told her that Weiss was really busy with her father's company. She missed her shot, although the Christmas party was her next chance. She was definitely going to talk to the white-haired girl. Not about her feelings but more like…get to know her and connect more.

"Ruby, I think you're killing the lilacs." A monotone voice approached from behind.

"AH-Oh! Blake, hey…" Ruby weakly chuckled before settling her watering can down.

She was really out of it today.

"Jaune, can you take over?" She asked tiredly, which the blonde immediately agreed to.

At this, Ruby walked over to the counter, with her cat-like friend on her trail. She needed painkillers for the sudden stress to her routine. Yang's sudden absence from the shop had taken a bit of a toll but it was only a bit. Soon, she'd adjust, and everything would be fine again…hopefully.

"What's up, Blake?" Ruby asked, popping out a tablet and putting it in her mouth.

Blake fiddled with her fingers as she looked nervously around the greenhouse. It seemed that her friend was anxious, but about what, was the question.

"Is it okay if I invite my boyfriend?" In this moment, Ruby was taking a gulp of her water.

Yes, she choked. And yes, it was very loud and painful.

"Oh, Ruby! Are you okay?" Blake asked, concerned as she rubbed her friend's back over the counter.

The red head shook her head and gulped more water before taking a huge breath. She chuckled very weakly and leaned on the counter. Thinking rapidly, Ruby bit her lip, wondering if it was best to avoid having Blake's boyfriend come. Let her come up with a list of pros and cons.

PROS:

Blake would be happy.

It would be rude not to let her.

CONS:

Yang hates.

Weiss hates.

Basically, everyone hates.

"…Sure! Why not?!"

Blake smiled gratefully at her, probably knowing how awkward the evening would be. However, Ruby understood why she asked. She's read a lot of romance novels about boyfriends and girlfriends being introduced to friends. It was basically another step into intimacy, right?

An image of Weiss popped in her mind at the thought of intimacy and it made the red head falter a little. She frowned, not sure if she liked pairing the two together. It's not that Ruby didn't like her, because of bloody _hell_ she liked her a lot. It was just—

"Are you okay, Ruby?" Blake asked, concerned.

It brought Ruby back to reality, but also made her hesitate to talk to her friend. She wasn't sure if telling Blake about her feelings for Weiss was a good idea but they're friends. Close friends, actually. So, hopefully Blake could ignore how much she hated Weiss…for Ruby?

"C-can I ask you something?" Ruby rubbed her arms, looking around the little flower shop.

Blake nodded in response, worried dearly for her friend.

"Is it crazy to like someone but not…want to t—no. Never mind. It's stupid, of course it's weird and crazy." Ruby muttered to herself, shutting down the topic completely.

 **Θ**

"Nora! Turkey in the oven!" Ren shouted from the kitchen.

And Nora, running from the bathroom, shouted "GOTCHA!"

Yang had to admit; the whole cooking process was very hilarious. The Renora combo was quite a comedy and she was pretty sure Ruby agreed. Yang and the little red were setting up the living room, making the Christmas tree and environment more festive with tinsels and baubles and angels and stars. It was all just rich colours and Coca-Cola (because we gotta thank Coke for coming up with Santa's new colour patterns).

Ruby was wearing her ugly Christmas jumper which consisted of cookies and milk, whilst Yang harnessed the beautiful man of white facial hair and presents. Yes, she decided to dress up as Santa Claus. As the host, she felt it was her duty to deliver joy and goods to her family of weird and wonderfuls.

Once everything was set up perfectly, the mistletoes purposely hung under every door frame, the dancing Santas and snowmen on each table, and fake presents in each corner of the room, the doorbell rang. Renora were still whipping up the food, but they were already onto the dessert, which was apparently Nora's specialty—no, sorry, forgive Yang. She meant it was Nora's favourite meal. Ruby was sitting by the fireplace, her hands out to the flames and pretending to find warmth from the tablet. Yang approached the door and opened it to find her three favourite girls.

"Ho, ho, ho!" She laughed, pointing at each of them.

Weiss rolled her eyes and elbowed her as politely and rough as she could before walking inside. Coco just laughed at the scene, following after the short fuse, dragging along Velvet.

"Honestly, Yang. Can't you be serious just _once_?" Weiss huffed then stopped when she made eye contact with Ruby.

The two hadn't seen each other is months and now, after so long, Weiss witnessed the red head…holding a stick full of marshmallows in front of a tablet.

Coco erupted into laughter. "You kidding me? Damn, y'all are so rich to have a fireplace!"

Velvet took a picture of Ruby, who looked like she wanted to throw herself in the digital fireplace.

"Hey, don't make fun of our effort of making you guys feel at home and warm here." Yang glared at Coco excusingly.

"Hey, hey, I'm not complaining, Xiao-Long. I'm ecstatic."

Weiss scoffed and placed herself on a sofa, her legs crossed and a permanent scowl on her face. Coco dropped off three boxes under the Christmas tree, making the tree seem full already since Yang, Ruby and Renora already placed theirs under there.

"So, when's the cat and bull coming here?" Weiss growled, obviously pissed.

Frankly, Yang wasn't too happy either, but she didn't want to upset Ruby. She saw her little sister slowly try to leave the room as Weiss kept on ranting about how much she didn't like Adam.

"Who even _let_ him come? You, Yang?" Weiss huffed.

And off went Ruby.

 _Thanks, sis._ Yang thought, before sighing and shrugging.

"What's happened, happened, okay? Just…try to be civil? I wanna see how bad he is in person, not from your mouth, you vixen." Yang grinned, trying to lighten the mood by insulting her good friend.

Weiss just looked at her in disbelief. "When's Pyrrha getting here? I need to destress."

"Well, Pyrrha texted me earli—" Yang was about to finish but the doorbell rang again.

When she went to open it, the first thing she saw was her tall red-headed friend, who…looked quite uncomfortable.

" _Finally_. You opened the damn door." A rude man snarled, barging through.

Yang just blinked as she witnessed Blake, biting her lip and silently apologising before rushing in after her supposed boyfriend. Pyrrha sighed in relief, patting her blonde friend on the shoulder.

"It was horrible."

 **Θ**

So, Adam was in the manufacturing industry. To be precise, he was in construction so there was a lot to say when he inspected Yang and Ruby's whole apartment. He went from room to room, judging every little detail like it was his business and he had the privilege to invade in their privacy. Yang let it slide, mostly because she didn't want to cause a scene, but she was so close to punching him in the face.

The whole time the group were talking, Adam kept on butting in and gave them all "advice", especially Weiss, who had to step outside (dragged out by Pyrrha). Whilst Adam was criticizing about every little thing, Blake did not once speak up, pretending like she didn't hear anything and honestly, it pissed Yang off. So, Yang took a break too, leaning on the wall of the balcony.

She heard the door to the balcony open then close and it made her sigh. She knew Weiss or Pyrrha was going to come out to comfort her but nothing they said would help calm down the fact that Adam was being a pain in the ass.

"I swear if he talks about another scaffolding…" She started.

"I'm sorry about ruining your party." And it took Yang off guard as Blake stood beside her, looking out at the view.

Yang sighed, keeping her opinions to herself as she gave Blake a genuine smile, something that she couldn't help doing whenever she was around her.

"It's all groovy. I just don't understand…"

"No one ever does…At least no one who really knows Adam." Blake took a breath and looked down at her hands. "I just hoped that if I brought him out here, people would see the nice side of him…but I guess that failed. Ha…"

Yang stared at the slender girl, taking all of her in again. It was bad. Really, really bad. Here Yang was, talking to Blake about her boyfriend and finally seeing just how beautiful the sad daughter of her landlord is. And now, after seeing how teary Blake was becoming, Yang just wanted to take her away from Adam. Except, not because she was blinded by her beauty, but because she looked exactly like someone Yang had known very well. Someone who was so immensely desperate to fix a broken relationship that they didn't care how poisonous it was. Someone that Yang's mother broke twice and left her daughter to pick up the pieces.

"I don't like Adam…but I'll tolerate him for you, Blake. After all," Yang slowly looked from the pale girl's trembling lips to her yellow eyes. "you're my sister's best friend."

 **Θ**

"Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

An abrupted shriek sounded through the living room, alarming both Yang and Blake when they stepped back in.

"C-calm down, guys…" Ruby nervously said, trying to avoid any unwanted fights occurring.

It seemed that Weiss and Adam were arguing again, however this time, Adam held back no restraints as he spilled his drink all over the Christmas rug. Sun and Neptune were struggling to refrain the hot-headed guy from hurting Weiss. Yang and Blake immediately split ways to help their companions out.

"Whoa, whoa, guys. What's happening?" Yang asked, furrowing her brows as she tried to cool her short friend out.

Weiss just scoffed and fixed her fringe. "He's trying to blame me for all the problems in his life."

"Huh? Am I wrong though? Your company has been dominating every single market in our economy and I'm going to lose my fucking job because of it. You don't care about anyone who isn't rich like you. You're a bloody rich, spoiled scum who only listens to her daddy!" Adam growled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about! I don't even run the company, and never once have I discriminated people just because they have less money!" Weiss spat back.

"But you will, won't you?" Blake spoke up this time. "You'll take over your dad's company and sooner or later, everyone under you will just look like ants you can step on. You won't care what happens to them as long as your business thrives."

Weiss' face went pale, taken back by Blake's outburst. In that moment, all Weiss saw was hatred in the taller woman's yellow eyes, right before Yang harshly pushed the couple out of the door. At least, the blonde, along with Sun and Neptune, tried to. Adam vehemently attempted to force his way back in to spout more hate on the white-haired girl.

She couldn't move or speak as she processed every word Blake was saying and tried so hard to find ways to fix it. She didn't even respond when Pyrrha and Jaune came up to try and comfort her. Every word they said left her before she could even remember them. That was when Weiss felt a tug on her hand, forcing her to move but at this point, she didn't even care if it were Adam or Blake or even a serial killer. Maybe it was for the best that she—

"Weiss?" A voice, soft and calming spoke.

The dullness faded when she raised her head to look at Ruby. They weren't in the living room anymore. It was somewhat unfamiliar but at the same time, like she felt at home. Paper scattered all over the floor with traces of rose petals. The room was so simple, with red covers and black walls. There weren't any posters, no sign of adolescence. Just Ruby and her…mild obsession with roses.

"Ruby…I don't know how to fix this." She didn't know why.

They meant nothing to each other but that very knowledge that they were basically strangers assured her of no bias. No judgement in her confession as tears began to emerge from her eyes.

"I've tried for so many years to make things right with Blake. I've tried to minimise my involvement with my father's company, but our fights always lead back to that. It feels like a curse to me and I've tried…so. Damn. Hard…to make Blake forgive me for being born in that family. My father shuts me out of all his business deals, I'm walking blind in that company, but I always end up taking the blame for his actions just because I'm next in line. I don't know what to do, Ruby. I just…I just want my friend back."

Ruby was speechless, not sure how to approach the vulnerable beauty. She just wanted to calm her down and tell her everything was going to be alright. She just wanted Weiss to know that she understood her position and that she'd try her best to help as well. All except…like Blake, she didn't very much like rich people.

"…How come you always respond negatively to Blake?" Ruby furrowed her brows, trying very hard to convince herself that Weiss was like every other rich person.

"At first, back in university, I believed that everything my father did, he did it for everyone's sake. I fought back to defend him whenever Blake or Adam or anyone else called him a monster."

 _See? She's just like every other rich person._

"But then…Blake made me realise that what my father did was wrong, and I tried my best to stop it. When he found out my intentions, he shut me out. And then…he announced to the world that I would be his heir to the company." Weiss took a deep and shaky breath before continuing. "Blake was fine at first, but when Adam found out that we were close friends, he turned her on me and made everyone believe I was the reason their families lost their jobs. They put all their problems onto me, and I just ended up…giving in."

 _She's…just like…_

"I didn't even want the stupid company. I had my own dreams too, but no one seemed to care. They all just associated me with that damned company." Weiss sobbed, clutching her chest. "And…and so…I just accepted it. I'm glad that Coco and the others still accepted me, but the bridge between Blake and I…It was burned the moment I became a Schnee…and I should have known."

 _Every other…rich person._

The white-haired woman in front of her profusely wiped her tears, suddenly aware of how vulnerable she was in front of her best friend's sister. Whilst Ruby just stared at her. At the woman with her walls down. At the woman who gave her conflicting thoughts. She wanted to comfort her, she wanted to so badly hug her, but even the thought of doing that made her feel uncomfortable. It was that same uncomfortable feeling she felt every time she was with Oscar. The thought of intimacy but the repulsion to do so.

However, in this very moment, Ruby stomached the feelings and pulled the heiress into her arms. She was determined to get the uneasy feeling over with, because she needed to do this. She wanted to make Weiss happy again because…

 _She's not like every other rich person._

"Weiss…you should come spend Christmas with us."

 **Θ**

"Listen, dude. That was _not_ okay for you to make a scene." Sun shouted at Adam, who glared back. "You were invited so you should have known your guest manners."

"Are you telling me that you're not bothered at all that _she's_ walking around feeling like she didn't do anything wrong?" Adam argued but Neptune pushed him back into the back seat.

"She didn't do anything wrong. You can't just judge her if you don't even know her." Sun replied.

"I don't even need t—"

Then the door shut, orchestrated by a very satisfied Neptune. "Yeah, yeah, you overly sensitive bull."

Whilst Sun and Neptune got in the front seat of the car, Yang stopped Blake, a frown displayed on her face. She didn't like how tonight went down at all. Especially since Blake defended Adam and spoke so harshly about her friend.

"Listen, Yang…I like you; I really do. You're a great older sister to Ruby. I just don't think I can trust your sense of judgement if you keep hanging out with Weiss _._ " Blake glared down at her feet. Her fists were clenched, and it looked like she was holding back from saying something. "Please take care of h—"

"BLAKE GET IN HERE NOW!" Adam yelled from the car, who got pushed back into his seat by a rather pissed off Sun.

"…Sorry." Blake muttered before leaving.

When they had left, Yang stood out there for a few minutes, alone. She wanted to collect her thoughts as her heart clenched. She couldn't understand Blake at all, but it pained her so much to see how much the resemblance was.

As Yang ascended the stairs and thought hardly about how conflicting the black-haired woman's words were, she walked in on her sister and friends comforting her best friend. The same best friend she'd first seen as caring and strong. Now, all she saw was hurt coming from those same blue eyes that've become puffy. Hurt that was caused from Adam…and Blake. That was enough to convince Yang to push her feelings of the enemy all the way to the back of her mind.

Blake meant nothing to her, at all.

Preparations for dessert were being made at this point and Ruby had to pull Yang to the side to snap her out of her daze. Oh right, they were still celebrating Christmas.

"Hey, Yang…Is it okay with we bring Weiss to Patch with us? B-b-because I already asked her, and she said okay so um…I'm sorry I didn't ask you first, but it was just because shewascryingandIdidn'tknowwhatelsetodo…" Ruby asked.

At this, Yang calmed, resetting her thoughts and remembering what today was about.

"Of course, Rubes. Just…let me warn dad first." Yang chuckled and pat her sister, a little too hard on the back.

 _Whoops_.

 **Θ**

After the whole fight that went down with Adam and Weiss, everyone just ignored it and continued with the feast. Unfortunately, Blake didn't return after Sun and Neptune dropped the red-headed dude off…Not that anyone was upset…well, except for Ruby. The dessert was a treat that literally made everyone smile and Jaune made it clear that Ren was an amazing cook, earning laughter from everyone. By the time 12AM came, almost everyone knocked out. Some lay on the sofas whilst Jaune and Nora took to the floor in their exhaustion. Ruby had retrieved to her bedroom and Yang lent her bed to Pyrrha, who had to wake up early in the morning.

Weiss had trouble sleeping so Yang cooked up a mean cup of tea for the white-haired girl. It earned a smile yet saddening smile. She said that: "Tea is Blake's favourite drink. Any kind of tea, I'm not joking around here."

It broke Yang to hear this coming from her best friend. To further make it worse, she saw her friend cry for the second time in that day as Weiss began to spill the reason behind her feud with Blake. She spilled about how badly Adam and his group treated her, lumping her in with her father, and how Blake betrayed her trust by siding with her boyfriend and not her friend when they were in university.

The only problem Yang had was that when all this was said, she could only think about how pitiful Blake was. How blinded she had become to sacrifice everything just to feel loved by such a horrible man. It disgusted her how much Yang was trying to sympathise with Blake whilst Weiss was suffering. But she kept it to herself and promised that she wouldn't be like Blake or her father. That she was stick by Weiss and if the other went wrong, she'd point it out and help her on it.

And so, when the 23rdof December came, the three went to the airport, three passports to check in and 3 suitcases to bring aboard the plane. With that, these 3 hearts hoped to forget about their worries as they passed the border to Patch, one of those random countryside places that wasn't as notorious as other islands in Vale.

* * *

 **Oh my gosh, I can't believe I actually got this chapter finished so fast lol. It's one of those moments where you're just writing and you can't stop because, like it's getting so juicy, amirite?**

 **I'm so nervous as to what's gonna happen. So far I've only planned up to chapter 12, that means my updates are gonna be slooooooooooow cuz I gotta remind myself what I gotta do and make the checklists. Can't go in blind lol.**

 **June's not gonna be a good month for me to write, just to warn you guys. If you're on Tumblr, you'll know that whiterose week is happening! So, I'm gonna be drawing during that week for them :)**

 **SO...stay caffeinated!**


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